LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 

AT  URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 


917.64 


C319e 


I  .H.S. 


X 


EAGLE    PASS; 


UK, 


3tife   oit    1  b c    $0ritr. 


BY    CORA    MONTGOMERY 


Cara  Patrla 

Mas  cara  Lidertad. 


NEW  YORK  : 
GEORGE  P.  PUTNAM  &  CO.,  10  PARK  TLACE. 


ICDCOOLl 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1S52,  by 

GEORGE  P.  PUTNAM  &  CO., 

in  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for   the  Southern 

District  of  New  York. 


E.  O.  JENKINS,   STEREOTYPER    AND    PRINTER, 
114  Nassau  Street. 


CO 

n£  TO 

OF  BROOKFIELD.  CONNECTICUT. 


To  you,  dearest  guide  of  my  youth,  these  pages  are  most  ap- 
propriately offered,  since  but  for  your  suggestion  they  would, 
probably,  never  have  seen  the  light.     To  you,  and  for  you,  they 
were  written,  as  you  earnestly  desired  to  hear  what  I  saw,  and 
what  I  thought,  of  "  Peon  Slavery  on  our  Border."     My  obser- 
vations are  plainly  and  simply  told.     Few  will  heed  these  hasty 
and  undeveloped  sketches;  but  there  is  subject  for  serious  thought 
and  Christian  action  in  this,  as  in  every  other  form  of  human 
servitude,  and  so  I  cast  my  tiny  protest-laden  shell  upon  the 
ocean   of  public  opinion.     It  may  never  touch  haven,  but  with 
yourself,  and  the  friends  who  make  my  world,  it  is  sure  of  favor 
and  sunshine,  and  that  will  more  than  repay  the  slight  labor  of, 

Your  grateful  and  devoted  niece, 

CORA  MONTGOMERY. 


ZQ 


PREFACE. 


It  was  not  at  "the. urgent  solicitation  of  friends"  that  thi3 
volume  was  given  to  the  press,  for  nobody  wag  consulted  in  the 
matter.  Beyond  the  assurance  of  the  only  one  who  had  the  "veto 
power"  that  he  would  not  object  thereto,  and  the  wish  of  the 
beloved  relative  to  whom  it  is  dedicated,  to  Bee  in  printed  record 
some  shadowings  of  our  border  life,  the  writer  never  heard  or 
d  for  an  opinion  on  this  small  Bubject.  Still  less  was  it  for 
the  pride  or  profit  of  authorship,  fur  she  was  in  no  wise  ignorant 
that  neither  could  arise  to  any  tempting  extent  from  these  crude 
pages,  thrown  off  without  system  or  premeditation,  as  the  events 
occurred,  or  the  thought  pressed  for  utterance  They  were 
written,  and  are  published,  because  the  facts  existed,  and  the 
writer — wishing  them  known,  and  seeing  no  one  else  disposed  to 
take  the  trouble — found  no  better  way  of  giving  them  to  the 
world. 

It  may  not  be  true  long — and  every  ray  of  publicity  helps  the 
cure — but  it  is  true  now,  that  the  interests  of  humanity  and  the 
honor  of  the  country  are  utterly  neglected  on  the  Rio  Bravo 
frontier.  Whether  it  be  from  ignorance  or  inertia,  it  is  certain 
that  a  class  of  the  highest  officials  of  the  nation  closely  imitate 
the  Mexican  dignitaries  of  a  similar  rank,  in  profligacy  of  expen- 
diture and  profound  indifference  to  the  wants  of  the  people. 

Our  Indian  policy  is  a  blot  on  the  very  name  of  Christians 
what  Senator  or  what  General  proposes  any  chanj  ept, 

perhaps,  something  a  little  more  veiled  and  indirect  in  our  ine 
rablo  system  of  despoilment  and  extermination  ? 

We  have  before  us  abundant  evidence  of  wrong  and  outrage  to 
American  citizens  in  various  parts  of  Mexico,  but    we  have  no 


Yi  PREFACE. 

evidence  that  one  step  of  firm,  manly  and  decisive  protest  has 
been  taken.  With  Mexico  diplomatic  compliments  cost  nothing 
and  mean  nothing,  for  her  politicians  are  just  as  rich  in  words, 
and  about  as  poor  in  acts,  as  ours  are  becoming  in  these  latter 
days. 

Unoffending  and  free-born  residents  on  our  soil  have  been  torn 
from  it  by  force,  and  carried  with  lawless  violence  into  Mexico  to 
be  enslaved  for  debt,  and  not  one  victim,  at  the  end  of  two  years' 
supplication,  has  been  officially  demanded  or  returned  to  us.  So 
far  from  it,  indeed,  that  the  official  record  of  impunity  is  given  in 
these  pages — to  the  eternal  shame  of  the  public  servant  who 
refused  to  vindicate  the  outraged  majesty  of  the  Union.  But  it  is 
also  true  that  if  a  persevering  demand  is  made  for  justice,  the 
appeal  must  touch,  at  last,  the  popular  heart ;  and  then  it  is  to  be 
hoped  we  shall  have  done  with  apathy  and  evasions,  and  see  these 
principles   engraved   in    uneffaceable   letters   on    our   American 

policy  :— 

Free-bow  citizens  shall  not  be  enslaved  for  debt  in  Mexico. 
Americans  and  their  property  shall  be  protected  from  spoliation. 
The  sanctity  of  our  soil  shall  be  vindicated  with  firmness. 

AVe  know  our  derelict  public  servants  have  failed  to  do  their 
duty  in  these  matters,  and  they  will  continue  derelict  so  long  as 
the  people  are  silent ;  but  they  will  hasten  to  amend  their  ways 
when  the  searching  blaze  of  popular  inquiry  is  turned  upon  their 
acts.  The  corruption  and  imbecility  of  our  officials  will  grow 
upon  us,  until  the  press  is  aroused  to  take  up  the  work  and  apply 
the  cautery.  Before  this  vague  and  irresponsible  administration  of 
our  executive  trusts  is  reformed  into  something  more  respectable 
and  trustworthy,  we  may  have  to  impeach  some  cabinet  officers, 
and  bring  legislators  under  stringent  laws  of  penal  accountability ; 
and  why  not  ?  Why  should  our  best-paid  and  most  learned  public 
servants  do  with  impunity  those  things  for  which  we  would  send 
a  poor,  untaught,  poverty-tempted  domestic  servant  to  the  peni- 
tentiary ? 


CONTENTS. 


The  Frontier, 

A  Bird's-Eye  Glance, 

Indianola, 

Eberly  House, 
North  and  South, 
Geographical  Morality, 
Texas  Living, 
A  Convert, 
The  Road,       . 
A  Pioneer  Mother,    t 
San  Antonio, 
The  Indian  Slave, 
Kidnapping,  . 

-ion  of  San  Jose*, 
Communities, 
Our  Trip, 
Indian  Signs, 
My  New  Country, 
Capabilities,   . 

.-  New  Family, 
A  Border  Chambermaid, 
Our  Peon  Servants, 
Fabiano, 
My  New  House, . 

rdeiiing,    . 
Chino, 

The  Mulberry  Grove, 
Delicate  Fan 
The  Seminole  Chief, 
The  Cane  Cottage, 
Our  Flag  Insulted, 
Tin-  Pake  Wife,  . 


PA'.i 

9 
11 
13 
15 
17 
19 
21 
23 
26 
28 
31 
;;i 
37 
40 
42 
44 
45 
48 
50 
52 
55 
59 
61 
64 
65 
67 
69 
71 
73 
77 
80 


viii                                       CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Cabinet  Letter,           . 

■ 

86 

Baptiste  the  Borderer, 

. 

. 

90 

A  Frontier  Dwelling, 

92 

Social  Distinctions,           .             .            • 

. 

. 

94 

Slavery  Extension,                             . 

96 

A  Character,         .... 

. 

• 

98 

Wells,            . 

100 

Melon  Sugar,        .... 

. 

• 

101 

The  Blue  Water,       . 

104 

Placicla,  ...                          . 

. 

. 

100 

Victor  in  Peril,                                                 , 

109 

A  Vexed  Question,         .                         . 

. 

. 

111 

Victor  Released,         .             .             .            . 

.     113 

Mr.  Webster's  Management,                   . 

• 

. 

116 

Indian  Bangers,         .                          .             , 

118 

Pablito,  ...                         • 

• 

. 

120 

Shepherd  Life,           .             .            .            . 

.     123 

The  Indian  Alphabet,     .                         . 

• 

. 

120 

Three  Forms  of  Slavery,        .            .            , 

.     127 

Peonizing  a  Mother,       .            .             • 

• 

. 

130 

Dona  Refugia,                                       •             , 

.     135 

Africans  and  Indians,     .                         • 

• 

. 

137 

The  Colored  Don,      . 

.     139 

Indian  Forays,    .             .                         • 

• 

. 

141 

Wild  Cat's  Policy,     . 

143 

Slaughtered  Herds,         .             .            • 

• 

. 

147 

Lynch  Law,  .... 

• 

.     153 

The  Foot-Prints, 

• 

. 

154 

Mexican  Peons,         .             .            • 

.     158 

The  One  Man  Court,      .             .            • 

• 

. 

160 

The  Court-Martial,    .             .             • 

.     162 

The  Community  Court, 

• 

. 

164 

The  Border  Need,      . 

.     167 

Pleasant  Discoveries,      .             .             . 

• 

. 

170 

Our  Mineral  Empire,             .             . 

.     174 

Navigating  the  Bravo,    .             .             . 

. 

. 

177 

The  True  Southern  System,  .             .    . 

.     179 

(K'nglc  pass; 

OR, 

LIFE    ON    THE    BORDER. 


THE  FRONTIER. 

The  lone  and  remote  border  sentinel  of  the  frontier  f'-ate 
of  Texas — the  patient,  unnoticed  watcher   in   the   gates,  for 
the  coming  harvest  from  the  equally  unthought-of  silver  re- 
gion ;    that  rich  ore-land  which  shoots  down  its  sierras  from 
a  thousand  miles  to  the  north  and  west,  to  her  very  side,  to 
within  two  or  three  hundred  miles  of  the  sea, — Eagle  Pass, 
with   only  its  one  rude  edifice,  and  its  tented  encampment, 
where  the  future  Fort  Duncan  was  to  arise, — Eagle  Pass,  fair 
and  healthy  as  is  its  site,  and  full  of  promise  as  are  its  position 
and  prospects,  did  not  seem  on  New  Year's  day  of  1850,  the 
place  for  stirring  recollections.     Yet  it  is  a  true  miniature  of 
Americanism  ;  roughly  limned  and  in  water-colors,  but  with 
the  genuine  family  look.     We  see  it  in  the  colossal  beauty 
and  conquering  energy  of  the  republican  stock,  and  we  can 
,  too,  if  we  will  consent  to  see  them,  some  past  stains  not 
easy  to  cure,  and  some  present  blemishes  which  we  would 
do  well   to  amend.      If  we  were   to  trace  out  in  full  the  pa- 
rentage of  Eagle  Pass,  it  would  unveil  Borne  awkward  paasa- 
in  our  national  policy  ;  and  if  the  people  would  heed  tho 
warning,  there  is  much  to  be  said  of  an  evil  growth  about  to 
1* 


10  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

take  root  on  our  border,  and  spread  the  baneful  fruits  of  a 
new  family  of  injustice,  oppression,  domestic  strife,  and  for- 
eign war,  over  the  Union.  It  is  here  on  this  border  that 
we  must  meet  and  blight,  by  the  scorching  fire  of  public 
opinion,  the  threatened  iniquity  of  peon  servitude. 

The  prosperous,  well-stocked  stores,  the  intelligent  society 
that  have  started,  as  if  out  of  the  ground,  in  one  short  year, 
at  this  frontier  point,  more  than  a  hundred  miles  from  the 
nearest  American  town,  are  of  themselves  an  expressive 
illustration  of  how  the  bold  enterprise  of  our  people  knows 
to  acquire  territory,  and  to  build  up  towns,  and  states.  More 
than  this,  Eagle  Pass  is  a  piece  of  Texas ;  and  around  Texas 
is  entangled  the  noblest,  and  the  meanest  acts,  the  most 
brilliant  and  the  most  clouded  diplomacy,  of  the  men  and 
measures  of  our  times.  If  the  drapery  and  maskincr  could 
be  rent  away,  and  all  exposed  in  stern  and  rigid  truth,  not  a 
thousand  of  our  twenty-three  millions  could,  or  would  believe 
the  schedule  of  our  last  ten  years'  diplomacy  to  be  a  verity  ; 
they  would  say  so  many  instances  of  weakness  and  corruption 
could  never  force  their  blots  on  the  pages  of  our  history. 
Neither  could  they,  if  the  masses  would  be  just  guardians 
of  their  own  interests,  and  not  allow  themselves  to  be  sold 
and  trampled  down  by  that  slimy  monster  Party,  whom  they 
have  allowed  to  make  fis  nest  in  their  treasury,  and  rule 
from  thence,  the  Union. 

The  highest  statesmanship,  the  lowest  evasions,  the  bright- 
est and  the  vilest  of  our  public  acts,  encircle  Texas  as  with  a 
mosaic  frame.  The  ground  mass  is  of  the  white  imperishable, 
marble  of  our  institutions,  bound  with  constitutional  fillets 
of  purest  gold,  and  set  with  countless  gems  of  precious  ray, 
yet  crossed  and  spotted  with  some  most  unsightly  flaws  of 
human  infallibilitv. 

At  Eagle  Pass  we  study  the  busy  world  at  a  safe  distance; 


A   BUUra-BYM  QLANCK  \\ 

as  from  a  beautiful  hermitage  on  the  mountain  side,  that 
overlooks  the  city's  turmoil,  without  being  affected  by  its  din 
or  sharing  in  its  strife.  The  cares  and  clatter  of  life  come  to 
us  so  calmed  ami  tempered  by  distance  that  we  can  handle 
and  probe  their  sickly  unimportance  at  our  convenient  leis- 
ure, without  the  least  danger  of  infection.  Sectional  opinions 
have  lost  their  beat,  and  party  malice  its  venom,  before  the 
papers,  freighted  with  their  prejudices,  can  reach  the  two 
hundred  miles  of  Indian-infested  country  that  lies  between 
the  coast  and  our  home  in  the  wilderness.  Here  we  review 
and  criticise,  condemn  or  approve,  with  all  the  freedom  of 
our  American  birthright,  the  wilful  inertness,  or  obstinate 
blunderings  of  our  public  servants. 

The  Union — ocean-zoned  and  star-crowned  ;  with  all  the 
treasures  of  the  earth  glittering  on  her  bosom,  and  her  im- 
perial robe  embroidered  in  flowing  silver  with  a  matchless 
tracery  of  lake  and  river  ;  with  climes  of  every  hue  cast  over 
her  like  a  gorgeous  canopy  ;  with  thirty-one  illustrious  sons, 
already  come  to  man's  estate,  to  guard  her  with  duteous 
love,  and  many  a  fair  territorial  daughter  to  grace  her  com- 
ing years — the  Union,  peerless  mother  of  this  noble  family, 
can  well  afford  in  her  greatness  to  confess  that  some  specks 
dim  the  sun  of  her  glory.  So  too  may  Texas,  in  the  pleni- 
tude of  her  rich  gifts,  afford  to  own  frankly  the  short-comings 
of  her  children,  and  keep  henceforth  to  higher  aims  and  more 
settled  purposes. 

A  BIRD'S-EYE   GLANCE. 

I  landed  early  in  March,  in  Texas,  and,  as  almost  every- 
body is.  was  led  captive  by  the  fresh  and  verdant  beauty  of 
the  coast  region.  The  north  was  still  shivering  in  the  frost 
and  sleet  of  lingering  winter,  but  already  green  and  laughing 


12  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

spring  was  holding  her  revels  on  a  carpet  of  flowers  in  the 
bright  sunshine.      A   gay  and   radiant  freedom   seemed   to 
pervade   this   land  of  fertility  and   promise,  and  with  every 
drawback,  in  the  shape  of  confused  land  titles,  and  the  be- 
ginner's privations,  there  is   no    country  under   the   sun  in 
which  a  sober,  sensible  and  industrious   man   can  more  cer- 
tainly realize  a  quick  independence  and  a  delightful  home. 
Somewhere   or   other  in  its  vast  extent,  every  one  can  find 
the  features  and  productions  that  interest  him  most.     There 
are  those  whose  associations  are  with  the  interminable  plains 
of  the   Mississippi,  and  who  love  to  look  out  from  a   little 
island  of  trees  on  a  boundless  level  of  verdure,  perhaps  dimly 
marked    in   one   direction  by  the  undulating  line  of  darker 
woodlands  that  fringe  and  define  the  course  of  some  stream, 
like  a  shore  of  the  sea,  with  its  windings  and   promontories. 
Such  must  be  delighted   with    the  rich,    broad   prairies  of 
southern  Texas.      They   have  there  the    deep    alluvial  for 
sugar,  plenty  of  fish  and  game,  splendid  cattle,  good  horses, 
and  some  mosquitoes.     Those  there  are  again  who  demand 
a   rolling,   picturesque   country,   pure    and   sparkling   water 
sources,  and  a  soil  that  will  return   cotton  and   tobacco,  as 
well  as  wheat  and  corn,  and  who  turn  their  backs  on  sugar 
cane  and  trees  veiled  in  garlands  of  gray  moss.     These  have 
but  to  go  back  from  the  coast  and  find  all  the  heart  of  man 
can   desire  in   the  way  of  cheap  soil,   and  healthy,   poetic 
situations  in  middle  Texas.     If  he  have  a  taste  for  the  sublime 
and  exciting,  he  has  but  to  leave  the  coast  some   two  hun- 
dred miles  behind  to  hunt  buffaloes  and  wild  horses  on  the 
head  waters  of  the  Brazos  and  Colorado.     If  mine-hunting 
and  glances  of  sparkling  gold  be  more  to  his  appetite,  he  can 
play  at  their  own  game  of  warfare  with   the   Indians  and 
explore  the  ore  region  that  belts  Texas  on   the   north   and 
west.     If,  finally,  he  would  live  like  the  patriarchs— and  in  a  -v 


INLIANOLA.  13 

country  like  their  own  promised  land — surrounded  by  flocks 
and  herds,  in  simple  and  bounteous  plenty,  he  may  come  to 
the  valley  of  the  Rio  Bravo  and  pitch  his  tent  in  the  pleasant 
recesses  about  ami  above  Eagle  •Pass.  All  these  sections 
otler  sure  employment  and  independent  homes  on  the  easiest 
terms,  [f  a  healthy  man  is  poor  and  homeless  in  Texas,  it 
is  because  he  is  not  manly  enough  to  turn  his  hands  to  useful 
labor.  It  is  the  scourge  of  Texas — or  rather  has  been,  for 
these  locusts  are  now  less  felt — that  an  army  of  idlers  made 
of  her  hospitable  homes  the  refuge  of  their  worthlessness. 
Hundreds,  too  genteel  to  earn  honest,  independent  bread 
— but  not  too  genteel  to  accept  their  daily  food  in  indirect, 
alms  from  those  who  do — swarmed  into  Texas  and  lived  on 
speculation  until  the  vigorous  life  of  the^  young  country  out- 

.v  the  canker.  The  scar  of  this  plague  is  still  visible  in 
the  chaos  of  law  suits  and  land  monopolies  that  overspread 

state  and  so  infect  her  titles  that  no  prudent  man  will 
touch  them  without  great  precaution.  But  it  is  in  process 
of  cure. 

INDIANOLA. 

The  steamer  Palmetto  cast  its  swarm  of  sea-sick  passengers 
ashore  at  Indianola  the  fourth  day  out  from  Galveston.  Both 
Laraca  and  Indianola  must  be  chartered  cities,  {'or  it  is  the 
curious  and  laudable  custom  of  Texan  towns,  to  elect  a  Mayor 
and  Common  Council  as  soon  as  they  have  men  enough  to 
till  out  the  offices;  and  then,  in  paper-money  days,  .they 
instantly  issued  their  notes  for  circulation.  Some  of  them 
did  not  wait  for  such  an  exuberance  of  population.  Fair 
Richmond  had,  T  think,  but  one  building  in  it  when  it  1  egan 
to  issue  its  amendments  to  the  specie  currency.  The  store- 
per  in  that  one   building  was   probably  the   Mayor  and 


14  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

population  in  general,  and  his  clerk  enclosed  within  himself 
the  Recorder  and  Common  Council.  Yet  Richmond  is  a 
lovely  place,  and  will  not  fail  to  say  of  itself,  as  says  every 
one  of  the  precocious  children  of  the  Lone  Star,  that  it  is  the 
most  promising  babe  of  the  whole  family. 

Almost  every  league  of  land  on  the  coast,  or  navigable 
rivers  of  Texas,  has  a  town  surveyed  off,  and  each  one  of  this 
legion  of  paper  cities  is  avouched  by  its  proprietors  to  be  the 
most  desirable  spot  on  earth.  Yet  by  a  singular  inadver- 
tence it  has  rarely  happened  that  business  and  capital  have 
pitched  upon  the  positively  best  locations,  that  is  to  say, 
almost  never  have  they  chosen  with  care  and  forethought 
those  points  of  intersection  of  the  foreign  and  domestic  trade, 
at  which  the  best  facilities  of  communication  have  opened 
the  wridest  ran^e  of  demand  for  what  came  from  abroad,  to 
meet  with  the  largest  means  of  supply  of  home  products. 
There  was  a  tall,  slow-spoken  gentleman  on  board  our  steam- 
er, who  had  become  the  possessor  of  "an  interest  in  a  town 
tract,"  who  was  more  than  anxious  to  make  a  huge,  fault- 
finding Englishman's  fortune  by  selling  him  a  few  lots  in  his 
"  splendid  sea-port."  If  he  succeeds,  I  can  fancy  the  blank 
dismay  of  the  purchaser  when  he  finds  wild  cattle  the  only 
inhabitants  of  the  prosperous  city. 

These  sales  and  the  persevering  ill-will  which  rival  places 
manifest  towards  each  other,  have  injured  incalculably  the 
character  and  growth  of  the  country,  yet,  in  spite  of  all  that, 
there  must  be  towns  and  commercial  outlets,  and  fortunes 
will  be  made  in  creating  them,  as  fortunes  have  been  made 
elsewhere  in  the  Union,  by  the  judicious  selection  and  outset 
of  new  places.  But  in  doing  this  it  must  be  borne  in  mind 
that  steam  has  revolutionized  the  old  rules,  and  the  winds  no 
longer  confine  commerce  to  those  harbors  that  are  accessible  to 
mailing  vessels.     Trade   is   pressing  its  favorite   depots  more 


THE  KBERLY  //<  15 

and  more  inland,  and  as  Bteam  supersedes  tails,  thinks   V 
than  of  old  of  being  exactly  on  the  coast. 

Every  body  was  disappointed  in  Indianoia,  it  was  so  dif- 
ferent from  their  ideas,  but  nobody  found  serious  room  fox 
complaint.  A  belt  of  white  sand  separated  the  ocean  of 
green  prairies  from  the  ocean  of  blue  water,  arid  along  this 
belt  was  arranged  a  line  of  wooden  buildings,  unrelieved  by 
trees  or  enclosures,  like  a  Btring  of  overgrown  packing  boa 
Bet  "in  on  tin'  beach  to  dry.  Lavaca,  its  neighbor  and  rival, 
ia  much  the  Bane  thing,  yet  when  these  forlorn,  ufidraped 
villages  plant  trees  and  robe  themselves  in  verdure,  as  Gal- 
lon has  done,  they  will  be  charming  places.  They  were 
in  such  a  hurry  to  commence  business  that  they  deferred 
>rnments  lor  aseason.  They  are  on  the  verge  of  a  rich  and 
extensive  back  country,  intersected  by  numerous  streams  that 
fall  into  the  Hay,  all  around  them,  and  one  or  another  of  the 
hundred  towns  laid  off  on  the  smaller  bays,  that  set  up 
and  indent  the  country  from  Matagorda  Day,  must  become 
the  centre  of  a  handsome  trade.  Where  the  most  favorable 
p. .'nit  exists  I  might  perhaps  give  a  shrewd  guess,  as  1  have 
u  the  subject  some  attentive  study,  but  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  be  ostracised  by  the  ninety-nine  towns  that  are  out 
of  the  question,  so  I  will  bless  them  all  and  keep  silence. 

THE  EBERLY  HOUSE . 

I  said  every  body  was  disappointed,  but  astonished  would 
he  the  better  word,  to  find  all  their  pre-conceptions  so  at. 
fault  on  their  arrival  in  Texas — not  even  excepting  those  who 

had  lived  there  before.      A  hra.e  of  lounging,  good  natured, 
indifferent  b  -  they  call   their  male  servants  from  nine  to 

ninety,  had  taken  charge  of  the  baggage  of  a  dosen  Of  so  of 
the-  passengers,  and  marshalled  us  up   to  -our  house,"  and 


16  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

in  a  short  time  all  were  disposed  of  somewhere.     The  house 
was  brimfull  before,  but  in  Texas  single  gentlemen  are  the 
unprivileged  order,  and  a  gallant  colonel  was  ejected  from 
his  snuggery,  and  I  installed  in  the  very  midst  of  his  books, 
boxes  and  newspapers,  not  to  mention  a  whole  clan  of  fire- 
arms of  every  size  and  degree,  as  a  matter  of  course.     In- 
stead of  murmuring  at  the  summary  process  of  our  landlady, 
who,  by  the  way,  is  not  used  to  rebellion  in  her  household, 
the  gentleman  himself  was  the  most  active  of  any  body  in 
putting  things  in  order  for  a  lady  stranger.     In  such  prompt 
and  cheerful  sacrifice  of  their  personal  comforts  and  paid-for 
rights,  the   gentlemen  of   the   Southern   States    shame  the 
boasted  chivalry  of  the  knightly  ages,  as  well  as  the  court- 
liest  of  the  court-bred  of  our   days.     It  is  a  beautiful  and 
distinguishing  trait  that  this  hio-h-toned  deference  is  paid  not 
merely  to  the  young,  beautiful  and  distinguished,  who  com- 
mand politeness    any    where,    but    to  the  poor,   lowly   and 
unknown.       Every    American,    and    most    especially    every 
southerner,  holds  himself  as  a  man,  bound  by  his  manhood 
to  render  every  protection  and  courtesy  to  woman.     When  I 
pressed  my   regret,    therefore,   at  the   inconvenience   I  was 
imposing  on  the  Colonel  in  thus  abruptly  entering  upon  the 
possession  of  his  private  sanctum,  he  refused  to  think  of  it 
in  any  other  light  than  a  thing  of  course. 

Eberly  House  and  its  lady  proprietor  are  an  epitome  of 
Texas  History.  She  was  among  the  5rst  settlers ;  had 
faced  with  resolute  cheerfulness  all  the  dangers  and  privations 
of  its  colonial  infancy,  and  rejoiced  as  became  a  mother  of  the 
land  when  Texas  boldly  set  up  an  independent  existence. 
And  never  did  a  young  housekeeper  in  the  world  of  civilized 
nations,  begin  life  in  such  utter  destitution  of  the  usu:>.l 
household  gear  of  governments.  There  was  not  a  church,  a 
court-house,  a  prison,  or  an  alms-house  among  the  Anglo- 


Til  E  NO  /.'  Til  .  I  XD  SO  I  -Til.  \  7 

American  settlements  of  Texas,  when  the  Lone  Star  put  forth 
her  banner  of  Independence.     She  began  with  Bchool-hom 
and  they  soon  grew  into  churches — with  the  printing-pn 
which  soon  unfolded  into  a  free  republic  and  a  Btate  consti- 
tution that  was  the  admiration  of  the  highest  statesmen  of 
the  country,  for  its  liberal  forethought  and  wise  adjustment. 


THE  NOhTH  AND  SOUTH. 

A  mild,  gentle-mannered  Pennsylvanian  intimated  to  me, 
in  a  quiet  tone,  under  cover  of  discussion  between  the  ladies, 
his  pleasure  and  surprise  at  the  well-dressed  and  comfortable 
appearance  of  the  public — "  even  the  colored  persons  seem  to 
be   decent  and  contented!"     The  truth  was,  Mr.    Grey  had 
come  out  with  his   head   full  of  whips  and  chains,  and   his 
fear  of  being  agonized  by  the  shrieks  and  sufferings  of  the 
slaves,  had  troubled  excessively  his  inclination  to  live  at  the 
south.     The  laughing,  well-clad  blacks,  whose  merry  quips 
and  gibes  rung  all  day  in  such  careless  unconstraint  in  and 
about  every  house,  turned  all  these  preparations  for  indignant 
sympathy  upside  down.     The  poor  gentleman  was  ready  to 
be  angry  with  them  all  for  being  so  happy  in  servitude,  but 
there  was  no  help  for  it.     The   race   in  its  present  state  of 
cultivation,  cannot  be  reasoned  into  taking  much  heed  of  any 
thins  that  does  not  strike  forcibly  on  their  animal  nature.     I 
reminded  him  of  this,  but  he  shook  his  head  doubtfully  and 
ilv.     "  It  is  melancholy  to  see  the  race  set  down   to  sla- 
v,  as  if  it  were  in  the  natural  order  of  Providence."     "I 
was  struck,"  continued   Mr.  Grey,   "to  observe  at  New  Or- 
leans that  if  the  population  there  could  be  divided  into  two 
portions,  one  including  all  the  thin,  anxious,  care-worn  faces, 
and   the   other  all   the  jovial,  contented,  and  well-fed   ones, 


18  *  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

there  would  be  but  a  small  sprinkling  of  whites  among  the 
healthy  and  happy  looking,  and  a  still  fainter  sprinkling  of 
blacks  in  the  class  of  troubled  faces.  Still  I  could  come  to 
no  opinion  from  a  three  days'  visit  to  a  slave  city." 

'•  Did  it  ever  occur  to  you,"  said  a  lady,  suddenly  turning 
from  the  window  whence  she  had  been  contemplating  the 
bay  as  it  unrolled  a  sheet  of  molten  silver  under  the  noon- 
tide sun, — "  Did  it  ever  occur  to  you  to  arraign  the  plan  of 
Divine  Wisdom  in  giving  these  Africans  black  skins,  thick 
lips,  flat  noses,  and  woolly  hair  ?" 

"  Certainly  not,"  said  the  astonished  northerner,  "  but 
permit  me  to  inquire  the  bearing  of  the  question." 

"  Only  this,"  replied  the  lady.  "  It  seems  to  me  exceed- 
ingly difficult  to  separate  the  facts,  and  determine  how  fai- 
th is  state  of  servitude  is  the  inevitable  consequence  of  the 
jjhysique  and  the  undeveloped  character  of  the  negro,  and  as 
such  a  part  of  the  Divine  plan.  In  short,  how  far  it  is  the 
ordinance  of  heaven,  and  how  far  it  is  the  work  of  human 
sin,  and  a  stumbling-block  to  the  progress  of  man." 

Mr.  Grey's  blue  eyes  opened  wider  and  rounder,  and  I 
gave  a  closer  heed,  for  here  the  north  and  south,  the  princi- 
ples of  the  one,  and  the  practice  of  the  other,  had  their 
champions.     It  grew  interesting. 

"  Divine  plan  ?  Ordinances  of  Heaven  ?  Surely,  madam, 
you  do  not  believe  slavery  was  created  by  God  ?"  asked  the 
gentleman,  completely  afloat  at  the  audacity  of  such  a 
claim.     "  Surely  you  do  not  claim  for  it  Divine  parentage  ?" 

"  Only  as  it  is  claimed  for  the  docility  of  the  elephant,  the 
endurance  of  the  camel,  the  fleetness  of  the  horse,  and  the 
fidelity  of  the  dog.  Thus  far  and  no  farther  ;  they  have  the 
qualities  for  man's  service  by  divine  creation,  and  whether 
by  divine  appointment  or  not,  man,  sovereign  of  animals,  and, 
above  all,  white  men — the  sovereigns  of  the  inferior  human 


GEOGRAPHICAL  M0RAL17  ).  ft 

races — are  endowed  with  t lie  gift  and  power  t<>  reduce  them 
to  his  own  uses." 

The  clamor  of  the  dinner-bell  cut  short  this  thoroughly 
characteristic  argument  too  soon  for  mv  satisfaction,  but  as 
we  rose  to  attend  the  summons,  Mr.  Grey  inquired  of  the 
lady  <>n  what  ground  beyond  difference  of  color  sin-  founded 
such  an  absolute  judgment  of  the  inferiority  of  the  black-. 

"Three  reasons,"  replied  she,  carelessly,  as  she  descended 
to  the  dining-room.  "A  negro  nation  has  never  attained 
eminence  since  the  birth  of  history  ;  next,  no  pure  negro 
ever  made  an  important  invention,  not  even  an  alphabet, 
neither  has  mankind  ever  found  among  them  a  great  tea*  her, 
whether  as  prophet,  legislator,  or  poet." 

Mr.  Grey's  reply  was  lost  in  the  confusion  of  taking  place 
at  table,  but  whatever  it  was  it  a  shade  of  thought  to  the 

countenance  of  his  listener.  Our  English  passenger  was  so  de- 
lighted with  the  fine  oysters,  and  so  astonished  to  inert  roast 
beef  so  juicy  and  tender,  and  turtle  so  perfectly  delicious  in 
this  out-of-the-world  corner,  that  his  charity  bubbled  up  to  the 
brim,  and  he  observed,  in  a  semi-confidential  tone,  "  There  are 
many  awkward  things  in  the  way,  and  many  excuses  might 
be  urged  in  palliation  of  Texas  having  committed  herself  to 

slavery." 

GEOGRAPHICAL  MORALITY. 

With  Mr.  Grey  came  out  Mr.  Jobson,  an  English  gentle- 
man, who  had  purchased  in  Philadelphia  the  fourth  part  of 
the  town  of  Arista,  and  was  now  in  anxious  quest  of  his  town 
site.  He  had  asked  every  body  on  board  the  steamer  about 
it,  and  the  more  he  inquired  the  more  confused  became  his 
data  and  his  ideas.  He  was  the  personal  friend  and  com 
pondent  of  a  celebrated  anti-slavery  leader,  and  like  him  was 


20  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

inclined  to  set  down  every  fault  of  church  and  state,  as  weli 
as  every  mischance  by  land  and  sea,  to  the  sin  of  slavehold- 
ing.  He  intimated  to  me  semi-confidentially  that  he  imputed 
to  that  "  the  general  want  of  correctness  in  the  land  transac- 
tions of  Texas,"  and  especially  the  "  unfindability  of  Arista," 
on  which  a  mischievous  young  Kentuckian  was  continually 
condoling  him.  Mr.  Grey  was  rather  anti-slavery  by  the 
accident  of  his  birth  than  for  any  other  reason.  Apples  and 
anti- slavery  are  the  natural  growth  of  his  latitude  ;  oranges 
and  negro  servitude  demand  a  warmer  climate.  He  was 
almost  certain  to  change  his  views  with  his  residence  on 
coming  south.  He  was  an  American,  and  our  morality  on 
slaveholding  topics  is  curiously  geographical.  It  hardens 
into  ice  and  marble  in  New  England,  and  softens  like  the 
winters,  with  amazing  rapidity  and  steadiness  of  progress  as 
we  move  southward.  With  us  it  is  a  real  wide-spread  and 
deep-rooted  social  fact,  and  we  deal  with  it  for  what  it  is — a 
political  necessity  and  a  constitutional  existence. 

With  our  sturdy  Englishman  it  is  simply  and  purely  an 
abstract  question  of  right  and  wrong,  and  he  will  never  change 
his  opinions,  for  he  will  never  change  his  point  of  view.  At 
all  costs  and  by  whatever  way,  he  desires  instant  emancipa- 
tion and  the  most  perfect  equality  for  the  blacks  in  marriage 
relations,  social  influence  and  political  rights. 

That  twenty  millions  of  whites  would  certainly  lose,  and 
perhaps  the  three  millions  of  blacks  not  gain  by  this  abrupt 
amalgamation  of  the  races,  is  nothing  to  the  purpose ;  the 
principle  is  right  in  his  estimation,  and  he  thinks  the  right 
principle  should  be  put  in  action  immediately,  if  it  sows 
<  .'ithquakes. 


TEXAS  LlVIh  ..  21 


TEXAS  LIVING. 


The  Bharp,  impatient  clang  of  the  dinner-bell  called  Borne 
of  the  party  to  their  first  meal  on  Tei  unci,  and  it  was 

so  abundant  and  excellent  as  to  win  the  commendation  of 
even  our  critical  Mr.  Jobson,  with  the  single  reservation  that 

v,  ill-en  and  wild  turkey  had  no  justice  in  the  cookiic 
universal  fault  in  America,  he  observed;  and  1  therefore  re- 
cord it,  that  my  countrywomen  may  amend  their  ways.    In  my 
ignorance  I  thought  them  excellently  done,  and  if  a  fault  there 

3,  the  biscuits  and  coffee  atoned  amply  for  the  deficiency. 
Fish,  oysters  and  turtle  abound  along  the  whole  coast  of  Texas, 
and  may  be  had  for  the  taking  ;  the  prairies  swarm  with  line 
cattle,  and  where  cows  may  be  had  at  seven  or  eight  dollars 
a  head,  and  can  run  out  and  take  care  of  themselves  the 
whole  year,  it  must  be  a  poor  manager  £hat  cannot  ensure 
milk  and  butter,  beef  and  veal,  and  working  teams  to  his 
utmost  desire.  The  woodlands  that  fringe  every  water- 
course, more  or  less  deeply,  shelter  droves  of  swine  that,  like 
the  herds  of  cattle,  ask  nothing  better  than  to  purvey  their 
own  subsistence.  Poultry  requires  a  little  better  tendance, 
but  they  do  well  here,  and  so  do  sheep  and  goats,  except 
exactly  on  the  coast.  Add  to  this  the  facility  of  raising 
almost  every  variety  of  fruit  and  vegetable,  and  it  may  be 
said,  in  one  sentence,  that  the  established  farmers  of  'Texas, 
and  of  the  western  stales  of  the  Union  generally,  have  abun- 
dant and  hospitable  tables,  and  the  traveller  must  be  delicate 
and  difficult  indeed  if  he  is  not  suited  with  the  fare.  Almost 
the  only  really  hard  dinner  that  ever  came  before  me  in 
Middle  T<  1  encountered  at  a  da  .  from   San    An- 

tonio, and  that   was  served  up  in  extra  style.     A  handsome 
tureen,  and   china  soup    plates   to   match,  were  set  forth   QQ 


22  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

irreproachable  damask,  but  the  soup  was  only  dirty  salt  and 
water,  and  the  after  course  a  very  small  desolate  island  of 
bacon  in  a  prairie  of  something  green  and  greasy-looking, 
mournfully  flanked  by  a  plate  of  very  dry  corn  cakes.  We 
did  not  venture  upon  the  eatables,  but  we  cheerfully  paid  for 
the  sight  of  the  nice  tureen  and  soup  plates,  they  were  so 
refreshing.  As  no  volume  of  reasonable  capacity  could  hold 
an  account  of  the  substantial  comforts  of  the  table  I  hare 
shared  in  sunny,  abounding  Texas,  I  take  the  traveller's  right 
to  dwell  heavily  on  the  per  contra,  and  therefore  must  men- 
tion, with  emphasis,  that  to  my  taste,  the  most  unsatisfactory- 
food  ever  set  before  me  was  that  dinner  of  stone  china. 

At  Indianola,  our  cheer  was  of  a  more  varied  and  digesti- 
ble character,  and  our  party  returned  to  the  sitting  parlor 
with  the  comfortable  assurance  that,  whatever  other  priva- 
tions might  be  before  them,  settlers  in  Texas  need  not  appre- 
hend dying  of  famine. 

The  sea-breeze  came  up  gratefully  from  the  bay  as  it 
unrolled  its  glittering  sheet  under  the  declining  sun  ;  and 
we  gathered  in  the  balcony,  in  front,  to  arrange  our  plans 
and  admire  the  gorgeous  canopy  of  crimson  and  gold  that 
overhung  his  place  of  departure. 

One  day  was  given  to  Lavaca,  and  the  next  we  took  up 
our  line  of  march  to  San  Antonio  in  a  stage  chartered  for  our 
own  private  service.  Mr.  Jobson  and  his  friend  engaged  a 
smaller  carriage,  in  which  they  proposed  to  make  an  exten- 
sive circle  of  exploration — Mr.  Grey  to  select  a  promising 
situation  for  trade,  and  Mr.  Jobson  to  prosecute  his  voyage 
for  the  discovery  of  the  unknown  whereabouts  of  the  city  of 
Arista,  of  which  his  only  landmark  was  a  "certain  blaze  on  a 
live  oak  tree."  When  he  effects  the  discovery  he  will  colonize 
it  with  knowing  Lincolnshire  graziers  or  sell  out  to  a  company; 
but,  at  the  last  advices,  it  was  still  unfound. 


A   CONVERT.  23 


A  CONVERT. 


Tm;  plan  of  travel  being  settled,  the  chat  fell  hack  on 
Texas  and  her  most  prolific  staples,  sugar,  cotton,  paper 
cities,  cattle  and  slaves.  It  was  anusiag  lo  trace  hack  the 
gradual  change  in  the  views  of  my  excellent  friend,  Mr. 
Grey.  [n  Philadelphia  he  was  held  to  be  an  able,  and 
doubtless  was  s  Bincere,  advocate  of  immediate  emancipation. 
He  had  almost  persuaded  our  gifted  and  ardent  friend, 
<  "  ;e  Lippard — "  he  with  eye  of  light  and  soul  of  fire  " — 
writs  one  of  his  burning  romances,  of  which  each  sentence 
i  seathing  sermon  to  oppressors,  and  make  its  heroine  a 
fugitive  colored  girl.  Gentle  George,  however,  could  not 
age  in  the  work,  as  he  was  already  in  harness  against  the 
Tyranny  of  Capital,  and  had  full  employment  for  lance  and 
shield.  Two  months  at  Washington,  and  a  most  exemplary 
and  believing  attention  to  the  debates  of  Congress,  did  for 
Mr.  Grey  what  speeches  in  legislative  bodies  rarely  do,  sim- 
plified the  matter,  and  modified  his  opinions.  He  was  dis- 
ci to  give  over  school-mastering  the  south  on  its  home 
duties,  and,  with  a  more  believing  trust,  leave  emancipation 
to  the  progress  of  light  and  God's  Providence.  These  were 
his  words,  and  as  he  floated  down  the  Ohio,  on  one  side  of 
which  slavery  is  wicked  and  illegal,  and  on  the  other  pro; 
and  lawful,  he  continued  to  grow  in  the  faith  that  each  State 
should  be  left  to  regulate  its  own  morals.  When  he  was 
down  as  far  SB  Memphis,  with  slave-cultivated  cotton  fields 
on  either  bank,  and  sla\  eholding  gentlemen  od  either  Bide  of 
him  at  table,  and  lovely  Blave-tended  damsels  glancing  in 
beauty  opposite  him,  he  threw  oil' an  item  01  two  more,  with 
hi>  cumbersome  overcoat,  now  too  heavy  for  the  climate 
and  decided,  in  his  secret  mind,  that  it  would   be  highly 


24  LIFE  ON  THE  BOEDER. 

absurd  to  insist  on  breaking  up  the  Union  for  the  sake  of 
helping  such  pretty  girls  to  black  husbands,  and  he  began  to 
think  this  would  be  the  prominent  results  of  the  wholesale 
levelling  system.     At  Natchez  he  concluded  that,  with  an 
equal  population  of  ignorant  blacks  and  prejudiced  whites, 
some   laws  of  self-preservation  might   be   excusable  in  the 
existing  social  state,  and  fully  excused  the  whites  for  so  much 
of  their  code  as  was  necessary  to  guard  against  insurrection 
and  bloodshed.     He  had  gradually  discarded  the  courteous 
phrase   of   "colored   brethren"  for   the   pithy  shortness  of 
"  blacks,"  and  finally  landed  at  New  Orleans  perfectly  tran- 
quil, if  not  slightly  indifferent,  about  the  "  spread  of  slavery," 
against  which  he  had  been  so  actively  and  sincerely  eloquent 
five  months  before.     His  northern  anti-slavery  morality  had 
unconsciously,  and  quite  honestly,  too,  softened  and  expanded 
in  the  warm  rays  of  the  southern  sun.     I  am  ashamed  to  con- 
fess it,  but,  on  that  subject,  there  is  an  enormous  capability 
of  expansion  in  American  consciences ;   they  are  like  that 
peculiarly  useful  article  of  which  we  make  shoes  and  life-pre- 
server— they  stretch   indefinitely  when   they  come   among 
cotton  fields,  and  melt  altogether  in  the  ardent  heat  of  sugar 
and  rice  plantations.     But,  then,  we  are  a  great  people  and 
extend  our  power — therefore,  why  not  our  consciences — over 
a  vast  reach  of  climate,  latitude  and  production. 

Mr.  Jobson  had  hoped,  on  starting  from  the  north,  that  his 
young  friend,  on  witnessing  the  whole  iniquity  of  slavery,  face 
to  face,  would  be  strengthened  up  to  the  firm,  uncompromising 
attitude  of  the  British  platform — perfect  equality  and  entire 
amalgamation;  and  when  he  saw  the  hands  steadily  travel- 
line  backward  on  the  dial,  he  could  not  conceal  his  astonish- 
ment  and  dismay.  What  if  the  Union  does  part  in  fragments 
in  the  strong  convulsion,  let  the  cure  be  instantly  applied  and 
slavery  expelled  from  the  system.      Children  in  medicine  talk 


.1   CONVERT  25 

of  patience  and  time  i  ilic  cancer  and  saving  the  frame 

entire,  bu(  be  said  cut  "if  ami  cast  out  the  cankered  limb. 
A  lady,  northern  born,  but  transplanted  to  the  south  by  a 

happy  marriage,  interposed  the  observation  that  in  cutting 

elf  the  Southern  States  from  the  family  of  the  north,  slavery 
would  not  be  cured  the  sooner,  and  that  in  no  case  were  tin: 
unaffected  members  of  the  Union  in  danger  of  taking  the  dis- 
"  Cast  them  out  all  the  same  as  leprous  sinners,  unless 
they  will  quit  their  sins  and  embrace  their  colored  brethren 
as  equals,"  insisted  Mr.  Jobson. 

But,  said  Mr.  Grey,  half  ashamed  of  his  conversion,  and 
ashamed  still  more  to  see  the  inconsistency  of  his  old  posi- 
tion. "Absolute  equality,  this  marrying  and  giving  in  mar- 
ge, between  opposite  races,  is  what  not  one  of  !!,•• 
Northern  States  would  desire  or  consent  to,  and  still  less 
would  the  Southern  States  tolerate  it,  for  the  number  of 
blacks  is  so  I    that  half  a  dozen  Slates  would  soon  be 

represented  in  Congress  by  colored  delegations." 

"  Surely,  your  free  States  would  not  object  to  meeting  and 
mingling  on  equal  terms  with  the  representatives  of  the  race 
for  whose  elevation  they  had  labored  so  earnestly  ?"  asked 
Mr.  Jobson,  warmly.  "I  think  they  would,"  said  Mr.  Grey, 
coloring  ;  "  yes,  undoubtedly  they  would.  We  d<  mand  politi- 
cal equality  for  the  Africans  among  us,  but  object  to  inter- 
marriage as  deteriorating  and  inexpedient  for  the  whites." 

Mr.  Jobson  thrust  his  hands  in  his  pockets,  and  choked  off 
with  difficulty  a  low  whistle.  "  Well,  upon  my  word,  Mr. 
Grey,"  he  broke  out  at  last,  "your  distinctions  are  too  nice 
for  m        Yon  are  i  ively  anxious  to  give  the  colored  race 

,    but    e  juaily   resolute    against   the    natural  and 
itable consequences  of  their  po         on.     Political  equality 
and  social  amalgamation  are  twin  Bisters,  and  it'  vou  insist  on 
one  how  can  you  reject  the  other?" 


• 


26  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

Mr.  Grey  murmured  something  about  prejudices  of  color, 
inexpediency  and  late  hours,  and  withdrew  to  his  bedroom, 
apparently  unwilling  to  continue  the  argument,  and  reluctant 
to  avow  the  fact  that  lie  was  already  a  convert  to  southern 
opinions. 

I  cautioned  the  stalwart  negrophilo, — to  borrow  a  word  the 
Cubans  have  lately  coined, — not  to  be  rash  in  his  arguments, 
for  they  might  be  misunderstood  at  the  south,  where  it  was 
a  stringent  necessity  of  self-preservation  to  suppress  all  dis- 
cussions that  could  tend  to  unbridle  the  tiger  that  sleeps  by 
their  hearths.  And  so  the  "  good  night  "  passed  around,  and 
all  went  their  ways  to  dream  of  other  scenes  and  other  sub- 
jects for  the  morrow. 

THE  ROAD. 

We  paused  but  one  day  at  Lavaca,  and  that  was  passed 
in-doors,  for  it  was  one  of  those  days  of  unintermitted  sun- 
shine in  which  a  Texas  March  is  as  rich  as  a  New  York  June. 
The  day  fled  agreeably,  for  the  intelligence  and  polish  of 
Mrs.  S.'s  family  were  equal  in  tone  and  interest  to  the  re- 
quirements of  good  society  anywhere.  And  here  I  may  ob- 
serve that  persons  from  the  olden  States,  and,  still  more, 
those  from  Europe,  are  astonished  to  find  in  a  new  country 
such  a  mass  of  mental  force  and  acquirement  as  they  encoun- 
ter in  Texas,  without  considering  that  the  advantages  of  its 
fertile,  well-placed  domain,  and  the  absolutely  nominal  price 
of  land,  are  calculated  to  draw  hither  the  choicest  enterprise 
of  the  enterprising  Union  ;  not  to  mention  that  it  was  also, 
for  a  time,  the  most  pleasant  and  convenient  refuge  in  the 
world  for  such  gentlemen  as,  by  any  chance,  came  to  have  a 
falling  out  with  the  laws  at  home.  It  is  not  now,  neither 
has  it  ever  been,  the  right  home  for  the  baser  class  of  crimi- 


TEE  ROAD,  27 

nals.    Thieyea  hare  to  turn  honest  here,  or  leave  the  country. 
Nobody  can  thrive  in  any  of  the  leading  branches  of  t1 

ancient  and  extensive  profession,  but  a  few  border  Mexicans 
in  the  horse  and  cattle  line,  with  here  and  there  a  small  law- 
yer who  pilfers  under  license  of  statute,  as  in  other  countries. 
After  we  left  Lavaca,  and  had  leisurely  rolled  some  fifteen 
or  twenty  miles  over  the  track  to  Victoria,  we  were  joined 
at  dinner  by  Mr.  Grey  and  Mr.  Jobson,  who  had  fully  kept 
pace  with  our  four-horse  stage  in  their  light  carriage.  They 
were  hoth  enchanted  with  everything.  The  country,  the  cli- 
mate, the  people,  all  came  in  for  such  a  plenteous  bounty  of 
praise  that  I  fairly  changed  sides,  and  was  forced  to  remind 
them  of  the  inconveniences  they  might  expect,  instead  of,  as  be- 
fore, dwelling  on  the  advantages  that  lay  within  their  grasp. 
They  looked  around  at  the  tidy  comfort  of  the  room  we 
were  in,  turned  over  some  books  that  filled  three  or  four 
well-arranged  shelves,  glanced  through  the  open  windows  at 
the  boundless  vista  of  green,  rolling  prai-rie  gemmed  at  inter- 
vals with  trees  just  bursting  into  foliage,  and  then  sat  down 
before  the  snow-white  cloth  to  praise  the  golden  butter,  de- 
licate batter  cakes,  and  nicely  dressed  chickens,  of  our  well- 
mannered  hostess.  The  country  between  Matagorda  Bay 
and  Victoria  is  almost  Belgic  in  its  level  and  rich  repo 
Thence  on  to  San  Antonio  it  is  park-like  in  its  vari-  d  yet 
tranquil  beauty.  More  green  and  fertile  it  cannot  be,  but 
more  rolling  and  picturesque  it  is,  though  rarely  rising  to 
the  dignity  of  precipitous  hills.  The  road  is  wholly  inartifi- 
cial, and  just  winds  where  the  chances  of  travel  led  the  track 

r  the  immense  expanse,  like  a  huge  dust-colored  serj 
taking  his  own  time  and  comfort  over  the  carpi  I  of  _■■ 
flow.  In  the  rainj         on,  of  cur--,  this  road  through  a 

rich  alluvial  region,  becomes  heavy  in   mud,  and  makes  tra- 
velling very  hard   upon  the   poor  hemes;  yet  even  in  blithe 


nS  LIFE  ON  THE  BOLDER. 

March,  when  the  roads  were  as  hard  and  smooth  as  a  Mac- 
adam street,  we  only  moved  on  at  the  rate  of  thirty  or 
thirty-five  miles  in  a  day,  and  were  five  of  them  in  getting 
to  San  Antonio. 

The  first  two  nights  out  our  acquaintances  slept  in  different 
hostelries  from  those  we  stopped  at — for  in  Victoria  and 
other  towns  there  are  more  taverns  than  one — but  on  the 
third  night  we  continued  in  company  on  from  our  dining- 
house. 


A  PIONEER  MOTHER. 

That  was  kept  by  an  excellent  dame,  whose  land  extended 
like  a  small  German  principality,  a  mile  or  two  in  every  direc- 
tion from  her  lo£  castle.  She  was  united  to  her  third  or  fourth 
husband,  I  forget  which;  but  I  recollect  that  the  first  was 
killed  by  the  Indians  while  defending  his  homestead  ;  the 
second  fell  in  defence  of  Texas,  at  the  Alamo,  when  Travis 
and  his  band  resolved  to  hold  it  until  no  man  was  left  to 
haul  down  the  Lone  Star,  and  deliver  the  fort  to  the  Mexi- 
can besiegers.  She  observed  quite  philosophically,  that  it 
was  well  enough  for  single  men,  who  had  good  horses  and 
no  families,  to  run  away  from  the  Indians,  but  when  people 
had  stock,  and  children,  and  house  plunder,  and  a  stout  log 
cabin  to  cover  them,  the  shortest  way  was  for  the  mother  to 
sit  down  by  the  fire  and  run  bullets  for  her  old  man  to  give 
to  the  Indians.  "  There  is  a  heap  less  trouble  in  it,  and  less 
scare  too,  than  to  be  scattering  off,  and  letting  the  hogs  and 
cattle  scatter  off,  every  time  the  Indians  come  about."  So 
said,  and  so  acted  the  old  lady,  and,  sure  enough,  there  she 
is  at  last  planted  safely  and  comfortably  in  the  midst  of  her 
flocks  and  herds  like  one  of  Homer's  rural  princes. 


l  PIONEER  MOTHER  29 

Mr.  Jobson  was  much  taken  with  this  remnant  of  the  early 

and  Bomewhat  in  violation  of  his  implied 

•  of  truce,  he  endeavored  to  requite  her  information  by 

Qg  to  her  use  some  of  his  lights  on  the  subject  of 
.T\,  and  the  equalization  of  the  black  and  white  races, 
lie  eulo  i/.<d  the  courage  and  industry  which  had  made  her 
the  mistress  of  Buch  a  homestead,  and  then  went  on  to  draw 
a  comparison  between  the  servitude  of  wa  ind  the  servi- 
tude of  inheritance.  It  was  so  profound,  so  logical,  and  so 
philanthropic,  that  Channing,  had  he  heard  it,  would  have 
hailed  him  as  a  disciple,  and  Frederick  Douglas  as  a  brother; 
but  our  stout-hearted,  practical  border-mother  only  opened 
her  eyes  wider  and  rounder,  as  she  drifted  farther  and  far- 
ther from  his  meaning.  His  long  words  were  too  heavy 
for  her  dictionary  range,  and  generally  overshot  the  mark, 
but  all  the  same  she  liked  the  grand  resounding  tones,  and 
listened  with  devout  attention  until  a  chance  ball  made  a 
breach  in  the  wall  and  let  in  some  light,  and  then  she  flew 
to  the  defence. 

Mr.  Jobson  had,  at  last,  sailed  back  to  the  shoals  under 
her  eye,  when  he  rounded  off  his  essay  by  a  sort  of  general 
axiom  thai,  as  suffering  and  ignorance  were  the  only  difficul- 

3  in  the  way  of  real  equality,  the  whites  had  but  to  free 
their  slaves  and  educate  them,  to  make  them  in  every  way 
like  brothers  of  the  same  family.     This  was  throwing   the 

!1  into  the  very  magazine  of  the  prejudices  of  a  woman 
"  born  in  Tennessee,  raised  in  Alabama,  married  in  Missis- 
sippi, and  Bettled  in  Texas." 

No,  sir,"  iid,  in  the  resolute  tone  of  one  who  sees 

tin.-  thin^  through  and   through,  and  cannot  be  talked  out  of 
her  mind.      '•  No,  sir,  then-  is  no  sense  in  that,  n<>  at 

all.     [fa  j r  white  woman  like  me  her  children  to 

school,  'ind  has  them  learn  the  same  books  and  ways  as  the 


30  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

President's  children,  and  if  they  are  as  bright  and  well  be- 
haved as  the  President's  children,  they  are  just  as  good,  and 
all  of  the  same  color  ;  for  I  reckon  their  father  and  I  are  as 
white  as  any  body ;  but  ail  the  schooling  in  the  world  won't 
grammar  that  child's  wool  into  straight  hair,"  pointing  to  a 
shining  black  urchin  who  had  come  to  the  door  to  take  a  full 
and  satisfactory  survey  of  the  strangers. 

"  But,  my  dear  madam,"  said  Mr.  Jobson,  not  a  little  sur- 
prised at  the  sudden  waking  up  of  the  storm,  "  consider  that 
these  differences  are  merely  physical." 

"  Phvsic  can't  cure  it,"  replied  the  unconvinceable  dame. 
"No  medicine  can  doctor  away  that  black  skin  or  woolly 
head.  No,  sir,  all  the  plasters  and  poultices  in  the  world, 
nor  all  the  colleges  either,  wouldn't  make  them  thick  lips, 
and  that  flat  nose,  into  a  likely  white  boy's  face.     Physicking 

indeed !" 

"  Not  into  a  white  boy's  face,  but  the  same  teaching  and 
encouragement  might  make  him  the  equal  of  a  white  boy," 
insisted  Mr.  Jobson. 

"  At  that  rate  it  would  be  just  as  well  for  the  white  folks, 
if  all  colors  were  put  into  one  dish  and  shook  together  in 
one  mess,  and  I  don't  believe  in  that  doctrine,"  replied  his 
antagonist,  in  high  disdain ;  and  she  set  about  clearing  off 
the  table,  and  with  it  the  argument,  with  an  air  of  abated 
respect  for  her  guest's  eloquence. 

11  Did  you  ever  hear  such  narrow  and  bigoted  ideas  ?"  ob- 
served Mr.  Jobson,  as  he  parted  with  us  to  join  Mr.  Grey  in 
their  own  vehicle.  His  only  answer  was  a  gentle  admonition 
for  provoking  such  discussions  in  a  slave  country,  where  the 
people  were  almost  absurdly  sensitive  and  irritable  on  those 

poii 

We  waited  a  few  minutes  longer  to  hear  the  opinions  of 

the  other  party,  and  were  pleased  to  find  her  equanimity 


\\  ANTONIO.  31 

fully  restored,  and  the  more   completely  as  she  remarked, 
half  in  the  way  of  question,  that  the  gentleman  was  likelj  a 

minister,  or  something  of  that  sort,  whose  head  was  turned 
DJ  hard,  study. 

"  Only  to  think,"  she  said,  laughing  at  the  recollection, 
"  that  a  little  physicking  will  make  a  white  gentleman  of  a 
nigger  boy.  Well,  the  Lord  above  knows  what  is  best,  and 
he  lias  fixed  it  all  his  own  way.  lie  has  made  the  blacks 
and  the  whites  as  he  pleased,  and  gave  them  their  places 
without  asking  a  crazy  doctor  where  he  should  put  them." 
With  this  reference  of  the  whole  matter  to  the  will  of 
Heaven,  we  exchanged  farewells,  and  resumed  our  way.  It 
was  the  last  argument  but  one  that  Mr.  Job.^on  ventured 
upon,  and  there  he  was  overwhelmed  and  silenced  by  the 
audacious  flight  of  his  antagonist,  who  boldly  averred  that 
the  negroes  were  fitted,  and,  as  it  were,  ordained,  in  the  crca- 
tive  scale  of  arrangement,  to  an  inferior  existence  by  their 
conformation,  like  camels,  horses,  and  elephants.  "  I  think 
self-interest  and  a  broiling  sun  discomposes  the  brains  of 
southern  men,"  said  the  astounded  Englishman,  and  this  con- 
viction, far  more  than  personal  prudence,  tended  to  wean  him 
from  these  discussions. 


SAN  ANTONIO. 

We  drew  up,  on  the  fifth  day  from  the  coast,  in  front  of  a 
spacious  and  handsome  house  at  San  Antonio.  The  grounds 
were  ample,  neatly  laid  out,  and  beautifully  encompassed  by 
a  curve  of  the  river,  but  it  was  a  new  place,  and  the  tr 
and  shrubbery  were  not  large  enough  for  shade.  Two  or 
three  ladies,  whose  dress  and  manners  did  not  belie  their 
rank,  and  an  officer  or  two  in  undress,  were  chatting  in  the 


32  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

s>hade  of  the  broad  piazza.  With  a  more  flowing  abundance 
of  vines  and  flowers  it  might  all  have  parsed — house,  grounds 
and  company — for  a  suburban  London  villa,  occupied  by- 
some  retired  officers,  and  I  mourned  that  we  had  parted  with 
Mr.  Jobson  a  day  back  on  the  road,  for  it  was  a  sight  to 
charm  his  neat  and  cosey  taste. 

Here  a  stout  mule  carriage  and  our  servants  awaited  us, 
and  we  but  permitted  ourselves  a  few  days  to  see  the  old 
missions  and  the  far-famed  crystal  springs — from  which  the 
San  Antonio  gushes  at  once  a  full  grown  river — before  we  en- 
tered upon  our  trip  across  the  belt  of  uninhabited  and  Indian- 
haunted  country  that  borders  the  Rio  Bravo.    Another  lady 

Mrs.  C.  the  wife  of  the  senior  proprietor  of  Eagle  Pass — was  to 
be  of  the  company.  Our  train  consisted,  therefore,  of  two 
strong,  well  appointed  mule  carriages,  protected  by  our  two 
gentlemen  and  three  armed  servants  on  horseback,  one  of 
whom  led,  with  the  saddle  ready  to  be  adjusted  at  a  mo- 
ment's warning,  an  easy-paced  pony,  to  diversify  my  mode 
of  travel  when  I  tired  of  a  covered  carriage. 

We  are  now  leaving  behind  us  the  broad,  fertile  zone  of 
southern  Texas,  in  which  negro  servitude  prevails,  and 
glancing  by  the  edge  of  that  healthful,  picturesque  middle 
region  that  the  Germans  'nave  come  over  from  fatherland  to 
make  free  soil,  and  dispart  from  Texas,  somewhere  about  I860. 
At  last  we  enter  upon  the  grassy  solitudes  that  border  the 
Rio  Bravo.  Here  is  met  a  system  of  servitude  new  and  alien 
to  the  sentiment  of  the  United  States,  but  it  may  take  root, 
acclimate  itself,  and  flourish  on  our  soil,  as  is  said  of  certain 
noxious  insects  with  which  the  old  world  has  gifted  our  grain 
helds.  So  far  we  have  made  no  gain  out  of  enslaving  the  Indians. 
We  have  slaughtered  the  red  race,  driven  them  from  their 
groves,  buried  their  history  and  traditions  in  the  graves  of  a 
hundied  exterminated  tribes,  yet  we  have  failed  to  turn  their 


:.v  ANTONIO.  33 

blood  and  sweat  into  dollars.  We  have  conquered  their 
lands  wherever  we  fancied  them  worth  having,  but  have  fallen 
far  short  of  the  Spaniards  in  success.  In  taking  the  soil  they 
Betttd  also  the  native  Lords  of  the  soil,  and  turned  them  in 
with  whip  and  chain  to  till  it  for  the  benefit  of  the  C 
querors.  We  Anglo-Americans  have  not  managed  so  well; 
cur  Indian  tribes  will  drink  our  lire-  water  and  die,  but  they  will 
not  give  their  limbs  to  our  service,  nor  bequeath  to  us  their 
children  for  slaves — Btubborn  creatures  that  they  are — so  we 
have  to  be  content  with  killing  them  olf  and  taking-  all  t'i 
lands.  Like  eood  Christiana  we  resign  ourselves  to  do  with- 
out  the  bones  and  sinews  of  the  red  race — since  they  are  not 
to  be  had — and  take  care  of  the  rest. 

Such  thought  d  me  to  look  history  in  the  eye,  when 

Victor,  our  confidential  servant,  and  a  man  of  pure  Indian 
descent,  stood  in  silent,  motionless  respect  to  rec<  ive  the 
order  of  preparation  fur  the  journey.  lie  waa  Blight,  rather 
well-formed,  easy  and  lithe  in  Ilia  movements,  but  with  the 
seri'-us  self-contained  air  that  characterizes  his  race.  His 
dark  face  was  Beamed  with  the  small  pox,  but  it  spoke  intel- 
ligence and  courage,  and  his  eye  wore  a  winning  expression 
of  attachment  and  confidence  when  it  turned  on  his  master. 
In  a  few,  but  remarkably  well-chosen  words,  Victor  intimated 
that  he   uiuh  d  his  ord<  rs,    and   then  di  ned    -with 

QOM  step,      in    the    future  my  sole    trusi    for   servants, 

domestic  attendance,  and  the  most  pan  of  my  human  com- 
panionship, is  in  these  tamed  Indians.     Well,  I  rather  like 

the    prOSp  Ct. 

The  early  evening  was  soft,  fresh  and  star-lit,  and  I  re- 
mained in  my  room  alone  f  .ran  hour,  making  over  a  thousand 
confused  fragments  of  tl  past  aid  :  it,  when  my  atten- 
tion was  attracted  by  two  figures  in  deep  chat,  a  short  dis- 
tance from  the  open  window.  One  I  fancied,  and  correctly, 
2* 


34  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

to  be  Victor  ;  the  other  was  a  largjf  person,  and  as  I  could 
readily  observe  in  the  clear  obscure,  an  Indian  of  fine  and 
graceful  proportions.  Victor  was  waiting  to  speak  to  his  mas- 
ter as  he  came  out  from  supper,  and  as  I  soon  gathered  from 
their  conversation,  his  companion  had  seen  him  as  he  entered 
the  garden  for  that  purpose,  and  made  himself  known  as  an 
old  friend.  At  first  I  only  noted  the  flowing  elegance  of  their 
mutual  compliments  and  the  rigid  politeness  with  which  each 
entitled  the  other  Senor,  but  the  stranger's  remarks  soon  ab- 
sorbed my  entire  attention.  It  was  a  moving  tale,  and 
opened  to  me  an  unexpected  view  of  border  life.  I  give  it 
now,  though  in  fact  it  was  only  completed  by  after  inquiry 
and  information. 


THE  INDIAN  SLA  VE. 

Severo  Valdez  and  our  Victor  had  been  scholars  together 
in  a  free  school  attached  to  some  convent  in  their  distant  and 
fruitful  Guadalaxara.  They  had  both  learned  to  read,  and 
Victor  even  to  write,  when  they  were  parted,  Severo  to  fol- 
low his  parents  into  servitude,  for  they  had  fallen  in  debt, 
and  were  sold  by  debtor's  law  as  peons  to  the  magnificent 
estate  of  Santa  Merced  (Holy  Mercy),  many  leagues  this  side 
of  his  native  city.  Victor  came  eastward  in  the  service  of  a 
Mexican  officer,  and  after  many  wanderings,  found  himself  at 
Matamoras  some  two  years  before  the  Mexican  war.  Here 
he  met  again  his  old  class-mate,  Severo.  The  hacienda  of 
Holy  Mercy  was  one  of  those  vast  peon-holding  properties 
peculiar  to  Mexico,  and  even  in  that  land  it  had  a  bad  repu- 
tation for  giving  over-allowance  of  work  and  an  under-allow- 
ance  of  food.  The  peck  of  corn  allowed  per  week  to  the 
peons,  or  slaves,  for  debt,  was  of  two  or  three  years'  old  stock 


THE  INDIAN  BLAVS.  35 

and  often  alive  with  insects,  as  the  fresh  com  of  the  current 
year  had  to  be  stored.  A  thousand  head  of  cattle  ranged  on 
the  outekirta  of  the  estate,  and  seven  thousand  sheep  and 

its  divided  with  them  the  pastures,  but  the  peons  only 
ta>tcd  meat  about  twice  a  month,  and  then  each  pound 
served  out  was  charged  to  them,  to  swell  their  debt  of  seni- 
tude.  Severo  endured  his  lot  while  his  mother  lived,  but 
when  she  died  he  broke  away.  Ilis  situation  of  vaquero,  or 
mounted  herdsman,  cave  him  a  fine  start  in  advance,  and  he 
was  fifty  miles  on  the  road  to  freedom  before  his  flight  was 
announced  to  the  overseer  of  the  Holy  Mercy.  The  poor  old 
father  was  suspected  of  counselling  his  escape,  and  in  his  rage 
the  mayor  domo  handled  the  old  peon  so  cruelly  that  he  bid 
down  on  his  mat  and  never  left  it  again.  In  a  week  f;om 
Seven/ s  departure  the  other  peons  dug  a  hole,  rolled  up  the 

pse  in  his  ragged  mat  for  coffin  and  winding-sheet,  and  cast 
it  in  the  earth  without  further  ceremony,  for  such  is  the  usual 
peon  custom  of  burial.  All  this,  when  he  came  to  hear  it, 
did  not  increase  Severn's  desire  to  return  to  the  sweets  of 
Holy  Mercy  ;  and  he  worked,  starved  and  travelled  forward 
until  he  reached  Saltillo.  There  he  fell  sick,  and  after  en- 
during his  situation  with  Indian  fortitude  fur  two  weeks,  the 
peon  who  lent  him  all  he  had  to  share — a  corner  of  his  ho 
for  shade  and  an  ox  hide  for  a  bed — induced  him  to  sell  him- 
Belf  to  a  baker  of  the  place  for  the  necessary  medicine  and 
su.-tenance.  He  served  his  master,  the  bake;-,  with  fidelity 
and  good  will,  for  he  was  treated  kindly,  bin  the  fear  of  being 

'aimed  by  his  first  owner  haunted  him  continually,  and  he 
was  more  than  glad  when  it  was  proposed  to  transfer  his 
service-  t.>  a  muleteer  bound  for  Laredo.  To  Lared<»  he  went, 
still  in  peon  >er\itudc  however,  for  it  is  a  sort  of  miracle  for 
a  bound  debtor  to  regain  his  freedom,  and  there  he  ranged 
the  banks  of  the  Rio  Bravo  in  his  original  capacity  of  va- 


36  LIFE  OX  THE  BOEDER. 

quero  or  herdsman.     Here  begins  the  entanglement  of  his 
story.     An  American  merchant  of  Matamoras  wished  a  relia- 
ble and  competent  man  to  go  down  to  the  coast  with  his  mule 
train  ;  and  by  a  triple  arrangement  between  Severo,  his  mas- 
ter  and  the  merchant,  the  active  and  faithful  young  peon  was 
to  serve  six  months  for  his  debt  of  $30,  and  then  become  free 
when  the  American  went  to  New  Orleans  in  the  spring.     At 
Matamoras  he  chanced  to  encounter  Victor,  and  renewed  with 
him  the  friendship  of  younger  days.     Victor  was  about  to  go 
up  the  river  to  Laredo,  and  was  charged  by  his  friend  with 
many  messages  to  a  peon  family  to  which  it  turned  out  Se- 
vero was  united  by  the  strongest  bonds.     He  loved  deeply 
the  young  niece  of  a  Laredo  peon,  Josefa,  who  was  free  and 
appeared  likely  to  remain  so,  as  she  was  active,  industrious, 
and  a  good  seamstress.     To  earn  her  -hand  in  legitimate  mar- 
riage was  the  great  object  of  his  life,  and  to  become  free  him- 
self was  such  a  helpful  and  desirable  step,  that  he  consented 
jovfullv  to  six  months'  servitude,  including,  also,  a  season  of 
yellow  fever,  which  he  was  expected  to  stay  over  and  above 
his  time,  during  the  absence  of  his  new  master  in  the  United 
States.     Victor,  while  at  Laredo,  discharged  punctually  his 
duty  to  his  friend,  and  even  wrote  letters  for  Josefa,  inform- 
ing Severo  from  time  to  time  of  her  steady  remembrance. 
Meantime  Severo  completed  his  probation,  and  returned  in 
less  than  a  year,  well  dressed  for  his  condition,  and  much  im- 
proved by  his  residence  among  Americans.     He  hastened  to 
claim  his  bride.     Unhappily  she  had  fallen  into  peonage  by 
some  misfortune,  but  Severo  did  not  hesitate  to  become  surety 
for  her  debt  of  $15,  and  make  her  his  wife.     This  exposed 
him  to  be  peonized  himself  any  day,  but  his  work  was  mainly 
devoted  to  the  service  of  the  creditor,  who  kept  his  own  open 
account  with  them,  advancing,  while  they  were  at  work  for 
him,  the  beans  and  corn  for  the  daily  bread  of  the  couple. 


KIDNAPPING,  ,37 

Thev  Bettled  from  the  first  on  the  east  side  of  1 1 1  - ■  river,  and 
when,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  all  the  hither  hank  was  recog- 
nized as  United  Stairs  territory,  they  became,  by  theexpn 
terms  of  the  treaty,  American  citizens.     This,  which  should 

have  been  a  sun'  guarantee  of  liberty  and  protection,  ca-t  the 
unhappy  family  into  the  most  incurable  miser)-.  I  would 
Btate  the  ease  distinctly,  for  it  presents  what  most  Americans 

will  find  it  hard  to  believe,  that  our  country  permits  on  her 

border  an  atrocious  and  peculiar  system  of 


KIDNAPPING. 

When  hostilities  first  kindled  with  Mexico,  Severo  entered 
into  the  employ  of  a  muleteer,  who  continued  near  and  with 
the  army  during  that  memorable  first  campaign  in  which  such 
splendid  victories  were  won  to  no  particular  end,  and  such 
massive  movements  were  so  bravely  pressed  for  no  particular 
object.  This  service  kept  Severo  far  from  home  most  of  the 
war  season,  but  more  than  once  the  fond  husband  mounted 
his  horse  and  rode  all  nio-ht  through  a  dangerous  region  to 
pass  one  day  with  Josefa  and  his  child;  and  then  he  would 
repeat  the  same  rough  ride  the  next  night,  and  report  him- 
self at  sunrise  ready  for  his  usual  duties.  About  the  con- 
clusion of  the  war,  the  knowledge  of  their  citizenship,  and  the 
enhanced  security  and  prosperity  they  hoped  to  attain  under 
the  American  laws,  began  to  make  a  deep  impression  upon 
the  Indian  families  on  our  side  of  the  Rio  Bravo,  and  on  none 
more  than  the  freedom-loving  Severo.  To  educate  his  first- 
bom,  his  boy  Marcos,  to  the  stature  of  a  l'r.e-born  American 
was  a  dream  of  delight  to  his  soul.  When  peace  was  proclaimed 
he  made  an  eager,  hurried  \  isit  to  his  home  at  Laredo,  and  then 
hastened  to  the  healthy  and  romantic  town  of  Corpus  Chlisti, 


3  8  LIFE  ON  THE  B  C  HDER. 

to  solicit  permanent  employment  from  the  celebrated  Col. 
Kinney,  the  proprietor  of  a  domain  exactly  three  times  as 
large,  and  ten  times  as  fair,  as  the  principality  of  Queen  Vic- 
toria's father-in-law.     The  sorrow-stricken  Indian  returned  to 
find  his  home  desolate.     Although  American  citizens  by  law, 
by  service,  and  by  loyalty,  the  Mexican  hawks  had  not  feared 
to  swoop  down  upon  our  soil,  and  clutch  away  his  helpless 
ones  in  his  absence.     The  thrice-paid  creditor  of  Josefa  had 
conveyed  her  by  threats  and  force  to  the  Mexican  side  of  the 
river,  where  there  was  little  trouble  in  having  her  assigned  to 
him  as  a  debtor-slave.     Her  young  American-born  son  was 
consigned  to  the  same  fate  to  meet  the  cost  of  bringing  him 
up,  and  thus  with  every  form  of  Mexican  law  they  were  sent, 
mother  and  child,  to  wTear  out  their  lives  in  the  harshest  sla- 
very knowrn  on  this  continent. 

Severo  appealed  to  an  officer  of  the  United  States  army 
for  redress — it  was  not  in  his  line  of  duty.     He  applied  to  the 
civil  judge— he  could  not  pursue  the  offence  into  a  foreign 
country ;  this  provision,  so  necessary  to  border  tranquillity, 
having  been  overlooked  in  the  haste  of  making  the  peace 
treaty.     In  his  despair  of  other  help,  and  perhaps  with  a  lin- 
gering faith  in  the  sanctity  of  his  American  citizenship,  Se- 
vero set  forth  to  have  an  interview  with   Josefa  and  her 
master,  and  if  he  could  make  no  other  offer  for  her  freedom, 
he  resolved  to  give  his  own  body  tc  redeem  his  wife  and 
child.     He  had  a  few  dollars  in  money  and  a  good  horse  ; 
perhaps  he  thought  he  could  prevail  on  Don  Matias  to  accept 
them — as  they  were  of  more  value  than  the    original  debt — 
together  with  a  year  or  two  of  their  united  service,  and  then 
dismiss   them    all    in   freedom.      It  was   an    illusive    hope. 
Instead  of  listening  to  his  proffers  of  triple  payment,  Don 
Matias  coolly  claimed  the  horse  as  the  estray  of  some  friend 
or  other,  and  seized  Severo  as  his  own  lawful  peon.     Severo 


KIDNAPPING.  39 

rd  the  sentence  of  the  alcalde  in  the  stern,  unmoved  Bile 
of  his  much  enduring  race,  and  whatever  be  nourished  in  his 
heart,  no  severity  of  labor  or  Buffering  wrested  s  complaint 

from  his  lips.      ]!«■  toiled  and  watched  more  than  a  year   be- 
d  opening  for  escape  offered  for  Joscfa,  and  without  her 

he  would  not  leave.  At  last,  when  Don  Matias  returned 
near  the  bank  of  the  Hio  Bravo,  and  placed  them  all  on  a 
rancho,  or  cattle  farm,  not  far  from  Mier,  the  time  of  deliver- 
med  at  hand.  Patience  and  courage  brought  a 
favorable  moment  for  the  attempt,  and  it  was  made.  The 
gained,  was  crossed  ;  the  whole  family  stood  free  cit- 

Q8  on  the  -oil  of  the  Union  ;  some  miles  were  travelled  in  the 
direction  of  the  town  of  Brownsville — for  Severo  had  learned 
to  fear  tli  ence  of  protection  at  Laredo — and  the  happy 

family  laid  down  to  rest  intl.  >ne  freshness  of  the  open  sky. 
They  folded  themselves  in  their  recovered  liberty  as  in  a  gar- 
ment of  joy.  and  Blept  without  fear.  Alas,  for  the  weakness 
or  obscurity  of  our  laws!  their  pursuers  had  followed  keenly 
on  their  track,  and  before  the  dawn  they  were  overtaken, 
bound,  and  re-conveyed  to  the  Mexican  bank  and  a  more  em- 
bittered slavery. 

Four  months  of  suffering,  distinguished  only  by  the  death 
of  their  boy,  again  terminated  in  the  escape  of  Severo  by  a 
desperate  flight,  in  which  Josefa  could  not  share.  This  time 
he  did  not  pause  until  he  reached  the  interior  town  of  San 
Antonio,  whence  he  proposes  to  dispatch  the  money  fur  the 
pur  of  his  wit'--,  if,  indeed,  her  broken  health  holds  cut 

until  he  can  earn  the  amount. 


40  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER 


HUSSION  OF  SAN  JOSE. 

Mr  heart  was  still  echoing  to  the  sad  notes  of  peon  bond- 
age, and  heavy  with  the  prophecy  of  wrong,  exile  and  exter- 
mination to  the  Red  Race,  when  I  stepped  into  the  carriage 
to  visit  the  ruins  of  San  Jose.  A  ride  of  five  miles  over  the 
pastoral  plains  that  environ  San  Antonio  brought  us  before 
what  was  once  the  beloved  school  and  abundant  home  of 
hundreds  of  reclaimed  Indians.  Silence  now  reigns  in  the 
desolated  mission.  We  drew  up  before  the  broken  arcades 
of  the  cloisters,  and  glanced  hastily  at  the  plan.  The  ground 
floor  had  been  divided  and  occupied,  as  is  generally  seen  in 
religious  houses,  by  a  refectory,  or  dining  hall,  and  the  other 
larger  rooms  of  the  community.  The  second  story  was  de- 
voted to  the  cells  or  sleeping  apartments  of  the  father.-. 
They  were  plain,  substantial,  and  reasonably  commodious,  all 
opening  in  a  line  on  the  gallery  over  the  ground  arcades. 
AVe  then  went  round  to  the  church  front,  to  observe  if  it 
could  be  true,  as  we  had  heard,  that  parties  of  volunteers  for 
the  Mexican  war  had  in  mere  turbulence  of  spirit  defaced  the 
old  sculptures  that  dated  back  almost  to  the  first  Christian 
settlements.  On  one  side  of  the  old  carved  doorway  stands 
the  statue  of  Joseph,  "  the  just  man,"  the  husband  of  Mary. 
He  is  the  San  Jose  to  whom  the  church  is  dedicated.  On 
the  other  side  in  a  corresponding  niche  is  Mary  and  her  child 
Jesus.  All  these  figures  have  been  shot  at,  disfjoured  and 
mutilated  by  parties  of  Americans,  who  thns  evinced  their 
dislike  to  bigotry  by  a  bigotry  still  more  intense.  They 
proved  the  soundness  of  their  Christian  and  republican  in- 
struction, by  a  dishonest  waste  of  others'  property  and  a 
spiteful  intolerance  of  others'  creeds. 


MISSION  OS  BAN  JOB  41 

The  country  around  lay  in  green  and   tranquil  repo 
rcely  changed  in  aspect  Binee,  two  centuries  ago,  the  first 
fathers  oi  th  ion  astonii  bed  the  cannibal  idolaters  of  this 

ion  with  the  tidings  of  the  Christ  who  died  on  the  cross 

the  salvation  of  man.  They  saw  the  image  of  the  Re- 
deemer crowned  with  thorns,  and  were<  made  to  understand 
how  the  cross  is  the  symbol  of  atonement.  From  his  n. 
ger-cradle  through  all  his  miracles  and  trials,  to  his  radiant 
in&ion,  the  divine  life  and  mission  of  the  crucified  Saviour 
was  laid  before  them,  in  pictures  so  clear  and  vivid  that,  to 
the  untutored  children  of  the  forest,  these  paintings  were  but 
little  Less  miraculous  than  the  acts  they  represented.     Th 

ions  were  repeated  in  processions,  and  enforced  continually 
on  heart  and  soul  by  the  solemn  ritual  of  the  church.  In 
this  is  one  of  th<  its  of  their  wonderful  missionary  succ< 

They  clothed  their  teachings  in  forms  of  life,  and  voiced 
them  in  melody.  Then  the  community  system  surrounded 
their  lives  on  earth  with  peace  and  abundance,  while  it  gave 
them  tranquil  preparation  for  the  life  to  come.  If  this  gov- 
ernment would  shelter  and  ration  the  tribes  that  it  is  slaugh- 
tering in  cold  blood  by  paying  them  annuities  in  rum  ;  if  it 
ither  their  children  in  Manual  Labor  Schools  instead 
of  leaving  them  to  demoralize  and  waste  away  in  idle,  un- 
taught vagabondism,  it  -would  cost  the  treasury  no  more,  and 
would  certainly  accord  better  with  the  missionary  spirit  of 
le.  We  who  send  two  or  three  hundred  thousanddol- 
lars  a  year  to  enlighten  the  heathen  of  Asia  should  Dot  refuse 
a  tithe  of  this  aid  to  our  heathen  at  home.  The  !-  ss  so,  ii  is 
t..  be  boped,  as  we  have  deprived  them  of  all  things  < 
and  so  hemmed  them  up  in  little  i  rren  corn  re  of  what  was 
once   their  1km  that    they   must  accept   civi  i/.alion  or 

death — they  have  no  other  choice  at  our  hands. 


42  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 


COMMUNITIES. 

This  way  is  open  to  us,  and  there  is  no  other  in  which  we 
can  redeem  the  two  unhappy  races  who  are  in  contact  with 
white  domination  on  this  continent.  Assign  them  homes  and 
give  them  industrial  teachers — I  am  speaking  now  of  the  Red 
Race,  for  to  the  African,  colonization  abroad  is  the  only  re- 
source, but  on  the  same  principle,  of  community  and  patri- 
archal guidance — assign  sufficient  and  permanent  domains  to 
the  tribes  still  in  existence,  use  the  money  which  the  Federal 
Government  is  expending  upon  them  for  their  hurt,  in  estab- 
lishing comfortable  quarters  for  those  too  old  to  learn,  where 
they  should  receive  soldiers'  rations,  and  cloth  and  blankets 
to  their  taste,  up  to  the  value  of  a  soldier's  clothing,  all  this 
to  be  issued  to  them  at  their  homes  and  no  where  else,  and 
in  no  other  form  than  that  of  subsistence  and  raiment.  Let 
their  own  chiefs  report  whether  these  duties  be  fully  observed, 
and  not  made  the  speculation  of  Indian  agents. 

The  youth  of  the  tribe  to  be  collected  and  taught  letters, 
morals  and  industry,  at  permanent  and  systematic  schools. 
As  they  advance  in  years  they  can  till  the  land  and  man  the 
workshops  for  the  community,  on  such  terms  of  reward  as 
shall  be  just  and  beneficial  to  the  general  weal,  but  always 
under  the  joint  supervision  of  government  and  their  own 
chiefs,  until  civilization  and  the  capacity  of  self-government 
shall  have  taken  firm  root.  These  tribes  would  be  nurseries 
for  such  a  powerful,  efficient  and  economical  border  cavalry 
as  is  the  especial  want  of  this  republic. 

H<»w  grievous  it  is  to  hear  a  senator  reply  to  this  petition 
for  an  effective  guardianship  of  the  Red  Race,  that  "  it  would 
De  so  troublesome."    We  can  plunder,  but  we  cannot  protect, 


COMMUNITIES.  13 

and  at  the  same  cost  we  find  it  more  acceptable  to  extermi- 
nate than  to  make  reparation. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  it  is  uncongenial  to  the  wild  nature 
of  the  Indians    to   live,  labor,  and  be  instructed  in  a  Bettled 
community.     So   far  from  this  being  true,  there  was  near 
half  a   million   of    these    wandering    tribes   collected   in    the 
course  of  a  century  in  the  various  Missions  which  dotted,  like 
islands  blooming  in  the  desert,  the  whole  expanse  of  wilderness 
from  one  end  to  the  other  of  our  double  continent.     A  line 
of  these  Missions  stretched  from  California  to  the  Mississippi 
a  hundred  and  fifty  years  back,  and   diverging   in   the   great 
valley  in  two  lines  of  light,  one  crossed  the  peninsula  of  Flor- 
ida to   meet  the  Atlantic,  and  the  oilier  boldly  pressed  up 
the   Ohio   until  its   rays   illumined   the    dark  forests   of  the 
northern  lakes.     In  South  America  a  beautiful  and  nourish- 
in^   >tate  arose  in   the   wilderness  under   the  hands  of  the 
Jesuits,  so  beautiful  and  flourishing  indeed  that  the  kings  of 
Europe  grew  hungry  for   its   spoils.     They  drove   away  the 
missionary  fathers,  and  blackened  their  fame  with  a  thousand 
falsehoods  in  order  to  seize  the  more  freely  their  helpless  prey. 
Like  this  was   the   fate  of  San   Jose,  and   other  missionary 
stations  in  Mexico.     Their   greedy  rulers  .-aw  these  estates 
were  well-cultivated  and  profitable  domains,  the  Indian  pr<  -s- 
elytes   most  convenient   slaves,  and   as   such    they  were   too 
tempting  to  B  the  merciless  grasp  of  a  soldier  despotism. 

In  that  one  sentence  is  told  the  fate  of  the  chain  of  desolate 
habitations  that  extend  from  New  Mexico  to  California,  and 
of  a  hundred  thousand  peons,  whose  fathers  thus  fell  into 
bondage  and   transmitted  to  them  an  inheritance  of  mis< 

Doubtle  -c  old  fathers  were  in  the  wrong,  since  pop- 

ular OJ  and  [i  ipular  opinion  ought  to  be  rever- 

enced as  infallible,  albeit  it  called  vehemently  for  the 
crucifixion  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  and  took  Barabbas  the 


44  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

thief  to  its  arms.  Doubtless  they  were  criminal  in  not 
teaching  the  poor  Indians  a.  better  Christianity  than  they 
knew  themselves.  Doubtless  the  uninstructed  children  of  the 
■wilderness  deserved  slavery  and  death  for  making  processions 
in  honor  of  Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus,  and  asking  her  inter- 
sion,  when  they  should  have  been  inspired  to  address  their 
prayers  directly  to  himself;  but  it  was  still  something  better 
than  their  old  sacrifices  of  prisoners  of  war.  Doubtless  they 
sinned  deeply  in  cherishing  the  relics  of  Christian  martyrs, 
almost  as  devoutly  as  we  would  a  button  of  Gen.  Taylor's 
battle-garments  at  Palo  Alto,  or  a  cast  shoe-string  of  Bona- 
parte or  Victoria,  but  even  this  was  better  than  the  usages 
of  their  ancient  faith — to  tear  open  the  breasts  of  living  men 
and  cast  the  quivering  heart,  yet  warm  in  blood,  in  offering  to 
their  grim,  monster  idols. 


OUR  TRIP. 

On  St.  Patrick's  day  our  company  mustered  for  the  trip 
across  the  broad  prairies  and  untrodden  hills  that  unroll 
between  San  Antonio  and  the  Bravo.  Our  two  carriages, 
three  mounted  servants,  led  mules,  and  escort  of  friends  made 
a  gay  and  joyous  cavalcade.  The  sides  of  our  carriages 
bristled  with  lire-arms,  like  a  brace  of  small  travelling  Arse- 
mils.  Our  two  gentlemen  never  laid  aside  their  trusty  six- 
shooters,  for  even  in  sleep  they  were  under  the  head  within 
prompt  touch.  At  night,  the  baggage  was  taken  out  and 
embanked  under  the  carriages,  and  our  beds  made  upon 
their  comfortable  floors,  for  they  were  on  the  ambulance 
pattern  of  vehicles,,  strong,  spacious,  and  fit  for  all  weathers. 
Victor,  who  had  decided  to  enter  my  service  for  the  future 
— of  his  own  free  judgment  and  without  my  asking, — had 
charge  of  an  active,  docile  black  pony,  that  bore  my  saddle 


INDIAN  SIGNS.  45 

in  case  T  desired  to  exchange  my  seat  in  the  c  >vered  carriage 
for  an  occasional  canter  over  the  temptin  rer-embroidered 
plains.  In  Ins  anxiety  to  be  generally  useful  he  had  piled  on 
my  saddle  a  small  tower  of  kitchen-commodities  for  the  road  : 

but  at  liio  liist  halt  we  amended  that,  and  Victor  and  Chino 
held  their  after-way  a  very  respectable  and  satisfied-looking 
palfrey  and  squire  of  dame 

At  the  little  Btreamlet  Rositawe  stopped  to  lunch  on  Mrs. 
C.'s  delicate   biscuit   and  cold  chicken.      There  we  bade 

farewell  to  our  escort  of  friends,  who  turned  their  hon 
heads  towards  San  Antonio,  while  we  launched  forth  on  the 
interminable  prairie.  To  me  it  was  a  holiday  of  delight.  The 
country  is  one  wide-rolling,  ever-varying  ocean  of  verdure, 
Hashing  back  in  golden  smiles  the  radiant  glance  of  the  sun, 
while  the  fr<  Bh  breeze  tossed  and  waved  the  changeful  tress 
of  bright  flowers  in  frolic  gaiety.  Through  the  day*  med 
to  have  all  this  world  of  beauty  to  ourselves  as  our  train 
wound — the  only  sign  of  human  existence — over  its  broad, 
silent  expanse,  but  nightfall  brought  hints  of  darker  omen. 


INDIAN  SIGNS 

The  sun  was  low,  and  our  eyes  were  wandering  admiringly 
over  a  Bmall  tarn  encircled  in  COpse-WOod,  and  gleaming 
nt-  and  clear  as  a  beryl  in  its  emerald  setting,  when 
suddenly  parting  through  the  thicket  we  came  upon  some 
broken  and  abandoned  carts.  The  experienced  eyes  of  our 
gentlemen  instantly  detected  marks  of  Indian  handiwork. 
We  know  now  that  an  unhappy  family  met  there  a  bloody 
end,  all  but  a  young  daughter  or  two  who  were  led  to  a 
more  horrible  fate.  Some  years  hence,  when  it  would  be 
more  wise  and  merciful   tc  leave    them    with    their    Indian 


46  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

lords,  our  government  will  make  atonement  for  its  present 
negligence  by  bringing  back  these  girls — with  many  a  ringing 
flourish  of  dollars  and  trumpets — to  kindred  who  will  be 
ashamed  to  receive  them,  and  who  will  condemn  them  to  a 
life  of  neglect  and  abasement. 

Scores  of  captive  women  and  children  are  now  sinking  to 
this  miserable  lot  because  Congress  would  spend  the  time  in 
talking  economy,  and  wasting  money  on  useless,  and  worse 
than  useless,  missions  of  compliment  to  foreign  royalties, 
when  it  should  have  occupied  itself  in  providing  for  the  sur- 
vey of  national  communications,  and  the  defence  of  this 
Indian-infested  border.  I  say  the  survey  of  national  high- 
ways, for  there  is  no  need  of  opening  the  sluices  and  flooding 
the  country  with  corrupt  contracts  to  construct  them ;  only 
tell  the  people  where  run  the  best  routes  from  sea  to  sea, 
and  assure  them  that  the  government  will  protect  these 
national  channels  of  communication,  and  trade  and  travel  will 
find  the  way  to  work  it  straight  and  smooth  as  soon  as  it 
will  pay  dividends. 

Our  course  lay  nearly  in  a  line  with  one  of  the  great  nat- 
ural routes  to  the  Pacific,  as  well  as  the  present  barrier  of 
separation  and  defence  between  the  inhabited  and  Indian- 
ranged  districts  of  Texas.  This  line,  drawn  from  the  head 
of  navigation  on  the  Bravo  nearly  in  direct  course  to  the  Red 
River  near  its  outlet  into  the  Mississippi,  would  intersect  the 
three  great  rivers  of  Texas — the  Colorado,  Brazos  and  Trin- 
ity— at  their  respective  heads  of  navigation  and  through 
their  ducts,  each  tapping  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  would  bring 
into  action  an  extent  of  fertile  domain  equal  in  productive 
powers  to  all  France.  It  would  touch  the  Mississippi  where 
it  would  meet  the  long,  grasping,  railroad  fingers  which  the 
Atlantic  shoots  forth  to  bring  closer  in  family  union  the  sis- 
ters of  the  west.     Here  is  the  great  track  to  the  Pacific  which 


UfDJAA  of&m  47 

tli-'  government,  with  Ihe  grave  and  Bolemn  blindness  of  an  owl, 
is  looking  for  everywhere  else.  The  eagle  symbol^  well  the 
daring  flight  of  our  restless  and  resistless  people,  but  the 

owl  is  the  bird  of  their  rulers.  It  is  slow,  portly  and  vora- 
cious, with  a  keen  Bcent  and  a  mighty  clutch  f<»r  the  spoils, 
but  not  at  all  gifted  with  eye  and  pinion  to  mark  tin-  way 
ami  clear  the  path  from  sea  to  sea.  No,  my  poor  owl,  you  will 
flutter  youi  stupid  wings  among  the  treasury-vouchers  at 
Washington,  and  leave  the  great  national  lines  of  union  and 
defence  for  the  eagle-enterprise  of  the  people  to  disco\ 
and  (dear  from  hovering  Indians. 

We  were  taking  our  last  breakfast  of  the  trip  at  the  Cha- 
con, in  a  fresh,  keen  norther,  when  we  heard  again  of  the 
Indians.  Our  people  found  two  soldiers  who  had  been  killed 
by  them.  The  bodies  were  committed  to  the  earth,  and  in 
an  hour  the  incident  was  forgotten.  Life  sits  lightly  on  a 
borderer.  Neither  his  own  nor  his  friend's  is  spared  any 
risk,  and  as  for  the  Indians,  in  his  eyes  they  were  only  made 
to  be  killed.  The  slaughter  therefore  of  a  soldier  or  two 
was  hardly  of  sufficient  interest  to  supply  an  hour's  chat,  and 
they  were  never  recurred  to  after  their  graves  were  left 
behind. 

In  the  afternoon  of  that  day  we  wound  through  some  ro- 
mantic hill-slopes,  and  entered  what  appeared  like  an  endless 
succession  of  orchards.  The  river  flashed  out  and  disap- 
peared at  intervals  like  a  chain  of  lakes  on  our  left,  and  on 
the  right  a  range  of  precipitous  hills  came  down  to  the  road, 
as  if  t<^  question  the  right-of-way.  On  reaching  the  shoulder 
of  the  hill  the  foremost  carriage  wheeled  into  a  green  nook 
embosomed  in  this  rocky  wall,  and  some  one  called  our, 

"This  is  Eagle  Pass." 

I  glanced  round,  and  saw  a  vast  tree  sprinkled  plain,  be- 
tween tho  hills  and   the   gleaming  river,  and  at  its  farthest 


48  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

edge  a  cloud  of  sheep,  like  the  snow-capped  waves  of  the 
sea  breaking  on  the  green  shore,  came  surging  towards  us 
with  extended  front.  With  slower  step  a  herd  of  handsome 
cows  were  pacing  towards  the  milking-pen.  A  white  tent, 
recessed  in  the  lap  of  the  hill,  and  the  words  of  welcome 
issuing  from  its  parted  drapery  recalled  my  attention,  and  I 
truly  answered  to  eager  questions,  "  I  like  this  sunny  wild, 
and  am  content  to  build  me  a  home  in  Eagle  Pass." 


MY  NEW  COUNTRY. 

Victor  had  spurred  on  before  us  to  announce  our  coming, 
and  the  board  was  spread  with  hospitable  cheer  when  we 
arrived ;  but  the  fragrant  coffee,  delicate  kid,  and  fresh 
honey,  with  other  less  considered  dainties,  had  to  wait  until 
we  had  taken  a  long  draught  of  the  pure  air,  and  feasted  on 
the  prospect  from  the  summit  of  the  hill.  Somehow  Eagle 
Pass  is  less  beautiful  to  my  eye  now,  though  it  has  all  the 
airs  and  graces  of  a  two  year  old  village,  than  it  was  in  its 
wildness,  with  its  one  white  tent  nestling,  like  a  dove  at  rest, 
in  the  cool  and  quiet  hill-nook.  A  lady,  its  mistress,  was 
hoped  for  rather  than  actually  expected  ;  but  an  inner  apart- 
ment had  been  hastily  prepared  for  her  reception.  It  was 
lined  with  printed  muslin,  of  a  pale,  clear  blue  running  pat- 
tern, and  its  pointed  ceiling  was  freshly  wreathed  with  ver- 
dant branches.  Some  stools  and  travelling  boxes,  cushioned 
and  covered  to  match,  served  as  ottomans,  and  gave  an  air 
of  repose,  and  even  elegance,  to  this  temporary  abode.  The 
light  stole  in,  tinted  and  softened,  through  the  floating  cur- 
is,  and  harmonized  well  with  the  tranquil  hush  of  the 
place.  Mr.  C.  had  been  thought  rash  in  thus  planting  his 
ie — for  this  house  of  canvas  was  soon  to  be  replaced  by 


my  sew  couxmr. 


49 


one  of  stone— so  far  from  any  other  residence,  and  the  more 
so,  as  he  had  in  the  frail  tenement,  goods  to  an  amount  cal- 
culated to  tempt  Mexican  robbers,  if  not  a  regular  Indian 
foray;  but  he  was  not  to  be  turned  from  his  way.  Fort 
Duncan  was  two  miles  farther  up  the  river,  but  it  was  a 
mere  infantry  encampment,  and  so  stinted  by  government  in 
men  and  officers,  that  they  were  hardly  strong  enough  to 
take  care  of  themselves,  and  was  then,  as  it  is  now,  at  the 
mercy  of  the  Camanches  any  bright  day  it  might  please  those 
respectable  red  gentlemen  to  muster  for  the  extermination  of 
that  important  sentinel  post.  The  reputation  of  the  United 
States — not  the  reality  of  its  care — has  been  the  protection  of 
this  commercial  depot.  We  have  lived  and  prospered  under 
the  shadow  of  what  Fort  Duncan  ought  to  be,  and  so  peace 
and  good-will  to  political  shadows  evermore. 

Victor,  who  watches  every  movement,  and  seems  most 
anxious  to  understand  and  serve  aright  his  new  mistress, 
ventured  a  timid  and  respectful  query  as  to  my -contentment 
with  the  place.  I  answered  that  it  was  better  than  I  had 
hoped,  for  the  current  voice  was  against  it  as  the  dryest  and 
least  beautiful  section  in  Texas  ;  yet  it  was  evidently  capable 
of  becoming  as  lovely  as  it  was  undeniably  healthy.  There- 
upon Victor,  who  is  a  very  Cicero  in  his  round  and  swelling 
periods,  began  to  contrast  this  wilderness  with  his  own  gor- 
geous and  fruit-crowned  Guadalaxara,  and  the  magnificent 
scenery  of  Tehuantepec,  where  fruits  and  flowers  chase  each 
other  in  endless  succession  through  the  round  year.  It  is 
true  Heaven  has  given  Mexico  everything  but  stable  laws  ;  but 
that  one  default  cankers  and  poisons  all  the  rest.  We  have 
on  this  side  of  the  river  the  anchor  of  firm  freedom,  and  by 
that  we  can  outride  the  roughest  weather.  It  is  true  that 
even  here  the  breadth  of  the  Bravo  river — about  as  wide  as 
the  Hudson  at  Troy — separates  the  Americans  from  a  much 
3 


50  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

finer  country  than  they  possess  on  this  side ;  yet  while  that 
paradise  of  natural  beauty  remains  unpopulated,  insecure, 
and  waste,  a  fair  and  prosperous  settlement  will  rise  in 
wealth,  strength,  and  security — is  rapidly  rising,  in  fact — 
under  the  wings  of  our  Eagle.  A  year  has  made  this  hope 
a  realized  and  permanent  existence ;  but  for  a  time  my  home 
was  established  nearer  to,  and  a  little  abore,  the  fort,  as  the 
destined  town  of  Eagle  Pass  had  not  then  planted  a  stake, 
or  laid  a  stone  towards  human  accommodation.  The  spa- 
cious double  tent,  pitched  by  Mr.  C,  and  his  temporary  cor- 
rals for  his  stock,  were  all  that  existed  of  the  prospective 
town  in  the  spring  of  1850.  Above  the  camp,  and  opposite 
the  military  colony  of  Piedras  Negras,  on  the  Mexican  shore, 
a  neat  cottage  had  been  called  into  existence  for  my  use, 
until  we  could  build  below.  It  lacked  some  finishing  touches 
when  I  arrived,  and  a  tent  near  it  was  my  home  for  a  week 
or  two.  Under  its  folds  I  passed  in  sound  repose  the  first 
night  of  my  pleasant  sojourn  on  the  border — a  calm,  con- 
tented, indolent  period,  which  I  shall  always  remember  as  a 
sweet,  half-waking  dream  of  fairy-land. 

Yet  my  first  mornings  were  as  full  of  keen  inquiry  as  if 
I  was  in  search  of  diamond  fields  or  gold  mines.  Wherever 
I  am,  I  like  to  know  the  features,  character,  and  capabilities 
of  the  region  ;  what  it  has  done,  and  what  it  can  do,  though 
I  am  too  idle  and  indifferent  to  turn  anything  to  my  own 
profitable  account. 


CAPABILITIES. 

Unless  a  fair  division  of  my  private  means  may  enable  me 
(as  I  sometimes  fondly  dream)  to  establish  a  missionary 
manual  labor  school  to  be  in  part  supported  by  it,  I  shall 


CAPABILITIES.  51 

DeVer  be  personally  interested  in  sugar  culture,  yet  T  WW 
n-it  thr  letfl  curious  to  verity  the  capabilities  of  our  vicinity 
for  the  growth  of  the  cane.  In  the  watered  glens,  and  on 
tlu'  vast  plains  susceptible  of  cheap  irrigation — an  admirable 
aid  to  agriculture,  yet  almost  unpractised  in  the  United  States 
— the  sugar  cane  succeeds  perfectly.  But  these  sugar  lands 
art  almost  entirely  on  the  Mexican  side  of  the  river  ;  though, 
on  this  side,  we  can  have  profitable  crops  of  melon  sugar — at 
least,  I  have  a  hopeful  faith  in  this  new  feature  of  American 
production.  The  soil  and  climate  is  adapted  to  the  vine  fa- 
mily. The  Texan  flora  shows  a  great  variety  of  climbing 
plants,  and  the  success  of  the  grape  has  been  conspicuous 
wherever  attempted.  Above  us,  at  El  Paso,  and  below  us 
again,  in  the  Parras  district,  the  juice  of  the  grapes  of  the 
country  is  absolutely  unequalled  by  any  known  in  the 
world,  although  as  yet  wine  and  raisins  are  not  made  at 
either  in  a  regular  and  proper  method.  Our  situation  ensures 
that  at  no  distant  day  these  uninhabited  wastes  will  echo  the 
merry  vintage  songs  of  the  distant  Rhine.  There  is  no  har- 
vest more  productive  than  the  purple  grape  in  any  favorable 
climate,  and  this  is  eminently  propitious  to  wine  culture. 
To  the  grape  and  melon  sugar,  we  may  add  the  castor  bean 
as  another  production  suited  to  this  region  in  a  peculiar 
degree  ;  only  that  whoever  enters  into  it  must  bring  out  the 
needful  apparatus,  for  machinery  and  machinists  are  crying 
wants  throughout  the  upper  valley  of  the  Bravo.  In  all  the 
finest  wheat  regions,  there  is  not  a  single  mill  that  turns  out 
bolted  flour.  The  bran  and  the  white  heart  of  the  grain  is 
all  given  back  together  to  the  customer,  duly  and  inseparably 
mixed  in  a  way  that  would  be  balm  to  the  heart  of  the  health- 
apostle  Graham. 

The  mining  region  enfolds  us  on  almost  every  side.     The 
Indians  are  slowly  retiring  from  the  silver  and  copper  region 


52  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

that  comes  down  from  the  Gila,  and  hems  between  its  lofty 
mountain  walls  hundreds  of  miles  of  the  Bravo,  even  to  the 
Painted  Rocks  (Piedras  Pintas),  scarcely  a  day's  ride  from 
Eao-le  Pass.  Just  beyond  these  the  Indian  traditions  tell  of 
valleys  seamed  with  rich  veins  cf  gold,  and  of  the  outlines  of 
lv.ined  cities  once  occupied  by  an  unknown  and  vanished  race. 
Indeed,  all  geological  analogies  indicate  the  presence  of  rich 
ores  near  us.  Coal  we  know  exists  at  our  door.  A  fine 
bed  crops  out  on  the  bank  of  the  river  opposite  the  upper 
line  of  Ea^le  Pass ;  and  the  settlement  near  Fort  Duncan 
takes  its  name,  Piedras  Negras  (Black  Stones),  from  the 
masses  of  the  coal  detached  and  cast  along  the  margin  of  the 
river  in  high  freshets.  These  "  black  diamonds"  may  be 
worth  more  to  us  here,  at  the  probable  head  of  navigation, 
for  the  steamers  which  must  wend  down  a  thousand  miles  of 
crooked  channel,  than  the  silver,  lead,  zinc,  tin,  fire-proof 
mica,  or  even  the  gold  mines,  which  are  now  springing  to 
light.  Without  any  of  them,  we  would  still  have  a  pure  at- 
mosphere, corn  and  milk,  wine  and  fruits,  wool  and  honey, 
and  with  these  one  should  not  fail  of  content  and  indepen- 
dence, if  the  elements  of  either  are  in  his  heart. 


MY  NEW  FAMILY. 

I  found  a  numerous  and  well-disposed  family  had  been 
assembled  with  affectionate  care  to  welcome  me  to  Eagle  Pass* 
and  make  me  feel  that  I  could  still  enjoy  most  of  my  old 
habitudes  in  this  remote  border.  I  lost  no  time  in  establish- 
ing myself  on  cordial  terms  with  them  all,  and  most  particu- 
larly with  my  handmaiden  Francesca  and  her  husband,  Fa- 
biano,  who  is  an  excellent  factotum  general.  It  is  the  best 
answer  that  can  be  male  to  the  maligners  of  poor,  weak, 


MY NBW  FAMILY.  53 

abused  human  nature-,  to  Ufa  Ml  average  character — one  that 
evil  circumstances  lias  not  utterly  perverted,  and  is,  more- 
over, endowed  with  average  Bom!!  and  kindliness — and  try 
fairly  tin-  effects  of  equitable  treatment.  By  equitable  treat- 
ment I  neither  mean  capricious  petting,  nor  what  some  very 
excellent  people  call  a  "  regular  system  of  dealing  with  them," 
if  this  regularity  is  to  be  as  cold  and  hard  as  a  block  of 
granite.  The  golden  rule  of  our  divine  example  is  good 
enough  for  me — if  I  could  but  live  up  to  it — and  that  is  my 
plain  and  simple  law,  although  nearly  everybody  has  a  better 
law  for  servants,  and  laughs  at  my  oddity  in  thinking  He  of 
Nazareth  laid  it  down  in  earnest  as  a  rule  for  genteel  people 
to  walk  by  in  real  life. 

The  morning  after  my  arrival  at  Piedras  Negras  the  drapery 
of  my  tent  was  lifted,  and  almost  without  my  knowing  how, 
a  Mexican  woman  stood  before  me  in  respectful  silence.  Her 
large,  patient  black  eye  was  bent  on  me  as  if  in  mute  request 
to  be  noticed,  but  her  whole  attitude  was  as  fixed  and  mo- 
tionless as  a  statue,  and  looked  as  if  it  might  remain  so  for  all 
time  if  it  did  not  please  me  to  speak  and  set  the  machine  in 
motion.  I  scanned  her  face  stead  'y  for  a  moment,  and  then 
gave  it  a  degree  of  confidence  which  has  been  abundantly 
justified  by  her  after  conduct.  It  wore  the  sad,  submissive, 
much-enduring  expression  ol  her  n  ie,  yet  withal  there  was 
something  so  trusting  in  those  melan  holy  eyes  that  they  won 
trust  in  return  ;  and  a  grain  or  two  of  mutual  confidence  is  a 
pleasant  capital  to  begin  with  in  a  new  family. 

"  Your  name  ?"  I  inquired,  for  I  knew  not  even  that  much 
about  my  new  domestics.  "  Francesca,  with  your  permission, 
and  always  at  your  service,  my  lady."  In  common  with  the 
Arabs,  their  cousins,  and  the  wild  Indians,  their  brothers,  the 
Mexicans,  even  of  the  lowest  rank,  arc  wonderfully  rich  in 
courtly  and  poetical  phrases. 


54  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

"Well,  Francesca,  can  }tou  take  charge  of  the  chamber- 
work  for  me  ?"  Francesca  made  a  timid,  glancing  survey  of 
the  tent.  The  plain  outsides  of  several  trunks  and  the  pile 
of  blankets  that  composed  our  travelling  bed  did  not  look 
very  formidable  or  complicated,  yet,  in  a  slightly  hesitating 
tone,  like  one  slow  to  assume  a  weighty  responsibility,  she 
replied  : 

"  If  it  is  your  command,  senora."  The  poor  girl  had  once 
in  her  life  slept  on  a  mattrass  and  seen  somewhat  of  house- 
hold gear,  as  I  learned  in  time  to  my  great  comfort,  but  1 
was  prepared  to  find  hef  ignorant  of  the  uses  of  any  bed  or 
bed  furniture  beyond  a  blanket,  for  that  is  the  case  with  nine- 
tenths  of  the  poorer  Mexicans. 

"  Can  you  sew  ?"     "  Si,  senora." 

This  was  asserted  with  cheerful  promptitude,  as  if  she  now 
touched  known  and  firm  ground.  But,  poor  Francesca,  your 
first  needle-work  was  indeed  extraordinary.  Encouraged  by 
this,  I  ventured  on  another  of  my  habitual  requirements,  and 
here  I  must  remark  that  the  most  thoroughly  valuable  personal 
attendant  I  ever  had,  or,  indeed,  ever  knew  in  any  lady's  ser- 
vice, was  a  Spanish-American  girl. 

"  Can  you  dress  hair?" 

This  was  an  overwhelming  question.  Francesca  put  her 
hand  to  her  own  head,  and  then  looked  at  mine,  with  a  comi- 
cal, half-frightened  bewilderment,  as  if  to  inquire  which  head 
she  was  expected  to  cultivate.  At  last  she  stammered  out 
that  universal  phrase  of  refuge  with  the  Mexicans,  "  Quien 
sabe  ?"  Who  knows  ?  I  saw  that  was  a  hopeless  quest,  and 
passed  abruptly  to  the  consideration  of  the  well-being  of 
another  portion  of  my  family. 

"  Are  you  accustomed  to  the  care  of  fowls  and  pigeons  ?" 

If  Francesca  was  alarmed  at  the  idea  of  assisting  at  my 
toilette,  she  was  yet  more  puzzled  to  understand  my  interest 


A  BORDER  CSAMBSRMA1D.  55 

in  the  feathered  tribe,  and  there  peeped  out  of  her  ■widening 
eyes  a  sort  of  vague  fear  that  my  inquiries  about  her 
capacity  for  needle-work  and  taking  care  of  the   feathered 

tribe  had  some  connection  with  each  other,  and  possibly  had 
reference  to  a  charitable  design  on  my  part  of  making  clothes 
for  them.  If,  in  fact,  such  a  fancy  had  entered  my  head,  it 
would  never  come  into  hers  to  manifest  any  other  feeling  than 
a  patient  desire  to  obey  my  wishes  ;  so,  of  course,  I  only  re- 
ceived the  invariably  peon  response  to  all  questions  and  com- 
mands, possible  and  impossible  of  fulfilment » 

"  If  you  command  it,  senora." 

To  relieve  her  perplexity  I  stayed,  for  the  time,  all  farther 
questions  on  her  capacity  for  general  usefulness,  and  directed 
her  to  put  the  tent  in  better  order,  by  way  of  practical  trial. 
She  went  out  and  gathered  a  handful  of  shrubs,  tied  them 
into  a  broom,  and  swept  the  floor,  while  I  wandered  out  to 
look  at  the  river,  whose  high,  gravelly,  treeless  banks  and 
scant  fringe  of  herbage — for  this  is  its  character  just  there — 
was  new  to  me  and  close  at  hand.  It  did  not  detain  me  long 
— this  half  barren,  yet  not  unpicturesque,  scenery — and  when 
I  returned  I  found  my  raw  recruit  waiting  for  my  approval 
with  a  quiet  air  of  "I  have  done  well"  consciousness  that 
was  really  comfortable  to  look  upon. 


A  BORDER  CHAMBERMAID. 

X  aocOH  box,  in  which  effects  had  I  een  transported,  had 
lenred,  with  a  white  cloth  thrown  over  it,  for  an  impromptu 
dreesing-table.  This  cloth  Francescahas  carefully  removed 
an  I  piled  up  on  the  box,  with  all  the  carpet-bags  and  blan- 
kets that  had  to  do  duty  for  us  in  the  place  of  chairs.  Among 
the-e  she  had  snugly  folded  in  the  wash-hand  basin,  out  of 


56  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

harm's  way,  and  laid  in  it  as  daintily  as  a  cradled  babe,  my 
bonnet,  only  that  its  fair  proportions  were  somewhat  marred 
by  laying  on  it  again  a  heavy,  bright-colored  horse  blanket, 
which,  like  the  genuine  Indian  she  is,  the  woman  thought  the 
choicest  article  in  that  crowd,  and  treated  accordingly  to  the 
most  honored  place.  My  dressing-case  chanced  to  be  stand- 
ing open  on  the  ground,  and  open  on  the  ground  she  was 
most  particular  to  leave  it,  only  in  addition  to  its  usual  trim- 
mings she  had  contrived  to  put  in  my  watch,  my  husband's 
spurs  and  bullet-pouch,  and  as  much  other  small  gear  as  she 
found  in  circulation  in  those  quarters.  We  made  some  slight 
changes  in  our  household  arrangements,  and  parted  for  the 
day,  pretty  well  satisfied  with  each  other;  and  now,  after 
some  months  of  mutual  instruction,  we  come  on  together 
admirably. 

This  is  a  specimen,  and  those  who  have  not  succeeded  so 
well  will  tell  you  a  favorable  specimen,  of  the  Mexican  border 
servants.  But  I  still  insist  that  this  obedient,  passive  race 
have  in  them  the  elements  of  good  service  for  whoever  will 
have  the  forbearance  to  be  good  masters.  They  are  wayward 
as  children,  and  have  much  of  the  singular  unteachableness  of 
the  unconquered  tribes  of  their  race,  but  they  are  willing  to 
learn  where  they  like  the  teacher,  and  they  can  learn  if 
properly  taught. 

In  the  afternoon  I  walked  down  to  the  little  ravine  in 
which  Fabiano  and  his  wife  had  their  tent,  and  found  it,  like 
most  of  the  Mexican  homes,  as  bare  of  every  comfort  as  an 
Indian  hut.  They  are  much  the  same  thing,  in  fact.  Some 
rude  cover  of  reeds  and  grass,  or  hides  and  branches,  to  fend 
off  the  extremities  of  the  climate ;  a  hide  and  a  blanket  for 
bed,  table,  chair,  and  all  other  household  furniture  ;  a  coarse 
bag,  made  of  woven  grass  or  the  all-useful  pita  of  the  coun- 
try, and  sometimes  a  box  as  well  as  a  bag,  to  hold  their  brief 


A  BORDER  CHAMBERMAID.  57 

inventory  of  clothes  and  valuables  ;  a  gourd  or  two,  and  a 
kettle  to  cook  in,  out  of  which  they  also  cat;  this  is  what 
you  will  find  in  a  Camanche  camp,  and  you  will  rarely  find 
more  than  this  in  the  possession  of  a  peon  family. 

Francesca  was  sitting  just  within  tie  entrance  of  the  tent — 
calmly  and  meditatively  smoking  in  the  midst  of  a  very  socia- 
ble and  contented  family — when  we  caught  the  first  glimpse 
of  it,  and  we  paused  to  take,  unobserved,  a  more  deliberate 
survev.      A  large,  fawn-colored  turkey  was  strutting  in  and 
out  in  search  of  his  mate,  or  something  to  eat,  and  saying  a 
great  deal  I  could  not  understand,  as  I  am  not  learned  in 
turkish,  to  a  demure  duck  that  was  couched  down  close  at 
her  side,  and  apparently  as  much  occupied  with  his  own  re- 
flections as  Francesca.     This  duck  is  a  forlorn  bachelor,  and 
has  attached  himself  most  Platonically  to  his  human  mistress, 
whom  he  follows  about  like  a  pet  dog,  and  never  goes  to 
sleep  until  she  retires,  when  he  squats  down  at  her  feet,  to  be 
ready  to  attend  her  the  moment  she  wakes.     He  s^ave  him- 
self  no  more  trouble  about  the  discontent  of  Sir  Turkey  than 
Brother  Jonathan  does  for  the  authority  of  the  Mosquito  king, 
or  the  irregular  murder  of  our  people  in  Cuba.     A  beautiful 
spotted  hen  was  gathering  up  her  chicks  on  the  other  side  of 
the  tent,  in  which  they  were  all  as  much  at  home  as  Fran- 
cesca herself,  while  a  pair  of  white  pigeons  were  running  to 
and  fro,  building  a  nest  in  some  invisible  corner,  and,  like  all 
the  rest  of  my  feathered  friends,  evidently  on  terms  of  the 
closest  intimacy  with  my  docile,  if  not  accomplished,  cham- 
bermaid.    This  scene  settled  her  position  securely  as  a  mem- 
ber of  my  establishment,  for  these  were  my  pets,  and  valued 
above  all  my  Eagle  Pass  possessions.     The  pigs  were  useful 
in  their  way,  but  they  were  pert  and  forever  putting  them- 
selves disagreeably  forward,  as  the  vulgar  will  do  every  where, 
and  besides  that,  pigs  can  take  care  of  themselves  all  the 
3* 


58  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

year,  and  ask  no  favors ;  the  cows,  though  respectable  and 
inoffensive — as  such  well-to-do  personages  ought  to  be — were 
dull ;  but  the  graceful,  bustling,  capricious  plumed  aristocracy 
of  idlers  are  always  charming.  They  have  as  much  variety 
of  character,  and  are  as  full  of  small  broils  and  petty  emula- 
tions, as  the  majority  of  human-kind.  Their  tricks  and  rival- 
ries, their  friendships  and  their  quarrels,  are,  if  you  watch 
them  as  closely,  fully  as  sensible  and  quite  as  entertaining  as 
those  of  common  neighborhood  gossip.  They  are  of  the 
same  real  value  at  last,  and  as  their  miffs  and  scandals  are  not 
near  so  mischievous  to  each  other,  or  so  tiresome  to  me,  as 
those  of  the  unplumed  human  bipeds,  I  would  always  rather 
give  my  attention  to  their  ways  than  hear  Mrs.  Snooks'  criti- 
cism on  Mrs.  Smith's  last  lace,  last  party,  or  last  flirtation. 

A  pair  of  fawns  shared  my  attentions  with  a  pair  of  enor- 
mous white  geese,  who  are  a  perfect  pattern  of  conjugality, 
bv  the  way,  and  absolutely  worth  setting  up  as  an  example 
of  loving  kindness  to  all  others  in  the  yoke  of  matrimony. 
An  array  of  parti-colored  goats  and  swarms  of  gentle  lambs 
and  kids  came  to  replace  the  loss  when  my  Inst  fawn  died — 
as  too  many  children  do — of  over- feeding  ;  but  I  have  turned 
them  all  in  charge  of  our  shepherd,  as  I  look  forward  to  the 
luxury  of  fruits  and  flowers  in  this  favorable  clime,  and  they 
are  things  not  likely  to  flourish  in  the  range  of  the  four-footed 
class  of  favorites.  For  this  reason  I  limit  my  special  house- 
hold intimacy  to  my  feathered  pets,  but  they  are  quite  suffi- 
cient to  make  me  forget  that  we  have  here  a  small  population 
and  limited  social  circle. 


0  UR  PEON  SER  I  rA  NTS.  50 


OUR  PEON  SERVANTS. 

I  had  wished  to  examine  impartially  the  workings  of  the 
peon  system  of  servitude  here  on  its  rugged  border  edge, 
where  we  can  track  it  freely  in  its  incomings  and  outgoings  ; 
and  truly  fate  has  gone  beyond  my  wishes,  for  I  find  that 
nearly  all  our  servants  are  runaways  from  debt-slavery.  Vic- 
tor, our  spoiled  man  of  all  work,  is  a  freeman  born,  and, 
moreover,  a  full-fledged  citizen  of  the  United  States;  but 
that  does  not  prevent  a  Mexican,  who  has  a  claim  against 
him,  from  coming  about  the  place  and  threatening  him  with 
m  rviiude.  The  old,  petulant,  gray-beard  of  a  creditor  talks 
as  fluently  of  selling  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  and  a  voter 
of  our  new-born  county  of  Kinney  as  if  a  citizen  and  a  voter 
of  this  glorious  Union  were  of  less  account  than  his  ragged 
Bkeleton  of  a  pony.  In  fact,  it  is  for  a  part  of  the  purchase 
money  of  another  such  a  ten  dollar  affair  as  lie  rides,  that  the 
gray-beard  intends  to  sell  Victor  into  peon  slavery.  There 
are  plenty  of  men,  whom  it  would  be  a  scandal  to  well- 
behaved  ponies  to  compare  in  value  to  a  horse,  but  our 
Victor  has  such  a  mint  of  useless  accomplishments,  and 
some  useful  ones,  withal — if  they  were  ever  at  hand  when 
wanted — it  would  be  a  shame  to  rate  him  at  the  fourth  part 
of  this  starved  and  ill-gaited  thing.  If  that  is  the  way  voting 
citizens  stand  in  this  market,  it  is  not  worth  while  for  Wo- 
man's llights  Conventions  any  farther  to  reduce  their  market 
rates  bv  bringing  in  the  softer  sex.  If  they  can  induce  the 
American  cabinet  to  define  positions  with  Mexico,  and  secure 
American  womankind  from  being  sold  for  debt  into  life-long 
servitude,  it  would  be  a  surer  and  clearer  gain.  If  they 
fancy  this  is  a  visionary  dread  they  are  mistaken.  American 
citizens  can  be,  American  citizens  have  been  enslaved  for  debt 


<30  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

in  Mexico.  So  have  French  and  English  subjects  been  en- 
slaved. One  of  the  born  subjects  of  Victoria,  who  was  the 
bound  peon  of  Senor  Rafael  Aldapa,  of  Santa  Rosa,  our 
neighbor — the  Santa  Rosa  of  the  silver  mines — ran  away 
from  his  master  this  season,  because  the  luxurious  fellow 
thought  a  peck  and  a  half  of  corn  a  week,  without  meat  or 
salt,  poor  living.  Some  people  are  never  pleased,  and  he 
was  one  of  them ;  he  objected  to  the  allowance  of  pure  and 
healthy  diet  provided  by  law,  and  he  objected  also  to  the 
bracing  exercise  of  the  whipping-post,  and  left  them  both 
behind  him.  Equally  unreasonable,  Victor  is  not  at  all  in  a 
hurry  to  succeed  him  in  these  luxuries  ;  and  if  he  is  prudent, 
lie  will  not  trust  to  his  citizenship  or  his  government,  but 
make  haste  to  settle  his  accounts  with  his  importunate  credit- 
or, and  keep  the  while  near  home.  One  of  our  shepherds  is 
here  by  license  of  his  master,  and  is  laving  aside  half  of  his 
wages,  month  by  month,  to  pay  up  the  debt.  He  has  left  in 
pledge  the  most  sacred  security  an  Indian  can  give — the  per- 
sons of  his  aged  father  and  mother.  Filial  love  is  a  deep- 
enduring  trait  in  the  Mexican  character,  and  a  beautiful,  re- 
deeming light,  it  throws  on  some  of  its  darker  shades.  I 
have  seen  a  strong  man  in  the  prime  of  life  stand,  in  mute 
submission  under  a  perfect  hail-storm  of  invectives,  aye,  and 
hard  blows  as  well,  from  his  angry  mother,  without  even 
offering  to  move  out  of  her  reach,  and  only  attempting  to 
avert  the  storm  of  her  wrath  by  tender  and  respectful  signs 
of  deprecation  and  obedience.  A  rude  and  unkind  child  is  a 
sort  of  monster  in  Mexican  eyes,  and  with  all  the  faults  in- 
evitable to  an  oppressed  and  untaught  people,  they  are  faith- 
ful through  life  to  their  parents.  On  this  Domingo's  master 
built  his  trust,  and  as  he  had  no  use  for  his  services,  and  the 
peon  market  was  dull,  he  took  the  old  people  in  pledge,  and 
suffered  his  serf  to  come  over  among  the  Americans  and  earn 


FABIAXO.  Gl 

wherewith  to  buy  his  liberty.     Faithfully  is  one  half  of  his 

wages  remitted  to  the  mister,  and  something  taken  from  the 
remaining  half  to  send  in  loving  tokens  to  his  parents  :  and 
then  lie  is  so  grateful  and  happy  when  some  little  gift  is 
added  to  his  own  well-earned  offerings,  that  it  is  a  delight  to 
contribute  a  tritle. 


FABIAXO. 

Ok  all  our  people  I  am  most  puzzled  to  understand  our 
quiet,  attentive,  sensible  Fabian,  who  comprehends  at  a 
glance  all  that  concerns  his  duty,  and  meets  every  require- 
ment with  such  intelligent  promptitude,  yet  flutters  like  a 
wounded  bird  if  you  question  him  touching  his  former  life. 
He  is  small,  yet  well  knit,  and  as  quick,  active  and  observant 
as  a  cat.  When  in  attendance,  his  eye  is  alert  to  catch  the 
slightest  increment,  and  you  hardly  look  at  what  you  want 
before  it  is  already  at  hand.  He  is  a  devoted  husband  withal, 
and  as  anxious  to  help  his  wife,  and  as  eager  to  cover  the 
defects  in  her  service  by  his  own  extra  toil,  as  if  his  cherish- 
ed one  was  an  angel  of  beauty.  Poor  Francesca  is  no  such 
thing.  She  is  a  clumsy,  heavy,  full-blooded  Indian  woman, 
and  much  older,  as  well  as  much  larger,  than  Fabian,  so  that 
in  everything  she  has  the  weight  on  her  side.  Yet  she  is  not 
wanting  in  wit,  and  is,  with  all  her  slow  ways,  the  terror  of 
the  whole  establishment  for  her  keen,  unsparing  sarcasms. 
Our  herdsmnn  Francisco,  who  is  also  a  character  in  his  way, 
is  the  only  one  of  the  dozen  or  twenty  men  about  us  who 
does  not  stand  in  awe  of  her  tongue,  and  what  a  rushing, 
rolling  cataract  of  resounding  words  they  do  pour  forth  when 
they  enter  into  one  of  their  discussions  over  the  long-drawn- 
out  Sunday  breakfasts.  The  echo  floats  up  to  my  chamber 
with  the  murmur  of  the  river  rapids,  and  for  an  hour  or  two 


62  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

they  will  flow  on  unceasingly  and  undistinguishably  together. 
Fabiano  listens  in  tranquil  silence,  perfectly  convinced  that 
his  better  half  will  triumph  in  the  end  over  even  the  voluble 
herdsman.  Still,  by  no  chance  does  she  let  fall  any  clue  to 
the  latter  years — the  years  of  her  married  life.  Fabian  was 
from  Monterey,  but  that  was  a  long  time  ago,  and  it  is  amus- 
ing to  observe  how  adroitly  the  pair  veil  their  after  residence  ; 
yet  with  all  their  precautions,  chance— that  sleepless  mischief- 
maker— has  told  their  story  : — They  are  runaway  peons  ; 
fugitives  from  slavery  for  debt. 

Fabiano  was  a   free-born  Indian — with  a  dash   of  white 
blood  I  think— of  Monterey,  and  drifted  this  way  in  the  ser- 
vice of  one  master  and  another  as  far  as  San  Juan — the  town 
dedicated  to  that  San  Juan   who  has   in  charge  the  best 
peaches,  figs  and  grapes  within  a  radius  of  thirty  leagues 
around  us.     Here  it  was  his  destiny  to  meet   a  lost  wife,  or 
to  lose  his  heart  anew  to  Franceses,  who  had  been  sold  while 
a  child   bv  her  parents   to  a  citizen  of  Monterey,  and  had 
moved  to  San  Juan  with  her  master's  family.     Her  master 
forbade  his  precincts   to  the  pertinacious  lover,  but  Fabian 
was  not  to  be  forbidden.     He  continued  to  roam  about  the 
house  by  day  and  night,  to  snatch  brief  interviews  with  his 
loved  Francesca.     The  laws  of  the  republic,  which  a  wise  and 
illustrious  senator  quoted  in  Congress  as  a  "  bright  model  of 
pure   liberty  worthy  of   our   imitation,"   permits  whipping, 
imprisonment,  and  the  like  gentle  persuasives  to  industry,  to 
the  masters  of  peons,  and  the  master  of  Francesca  made  large 
use  of  his  legal  fights.     By  the  way,  would  it  not  be  well  for 
those  members  of  Congress  who  believe  in  this  example,  to 
propose  the  enactment  in  their  respective  states  of  the  Mexi- 
can debtor  law,  and  to  allow  employers  to  whip,  starve,  and 
send   to  jail,  those  whose  labors  are  unsatisfactoiy  ?     Will 
not  the  factory-girls  of  New  England  petition  for  the  intro- 


VABIANO.  03 

duction  of  llie  laws  of  that  purely  free  Mexico,  to  whoso 
"soil  nndefiled  by  slavery/1  such  profuse  libations  are  poured 

out  by  their  profound  and  patriotic  members  of  Con- 
greet  .' 

Well,  Franeesca,  who  boasts  the  best  Indian  blood  of  the 
state,  felt  the  inexorable  lash,  and  every  blow  cut  to  the  lov- 
ing heart  of  Fabian.  He  plead  for  instant  flight  across  the 
Kin  Grande.  Under  the  stars  of  the  Union  there  is  no 
slavery  for  debt,  and  whatever  else  happened,  the  Red  Race 
went  free  from  bondage  on  that  portion  of  their  native  in- 
heritance. 

It  was  so  arranged,  and  Fabian  was  hovering  about  the 
house  watching  for  the  favorable  moment  of  flight,  when 
he  was  discovered  and  arrested  by  Francois  master. 
To  throw  him  in  prison,  make  formal  complaint  to  the 
Alcalde,  and  prepare  a  list  of  costs  on  which  he  could  legally 
be  made  a  debtor  and  peon,  was  a  thing  of  course.  This 
peril  Fabian  had  looked  in  the  face,  and  prepared  for  before- 
hand. He  had  his  friends  without,  and  within  accomplices 
are  easily  gained  in  prisons.  A  few  days  of  bitter  agony 
about  his  companion,  for  he  could  guess,  but  not  know,  the 
measure  of  punishment  that  awaited  Franeesca,  and  then  all 
around  him  fell  back  into  careless,  un watched  neglect. 
While  the  master  was  listlessly  smoking  his  cigar,  and  per- 
haps mistily  coming  to  a  decision  how  and  when  he  would 
turn  his  new  peon  into  ready  money,  Fabian  and  his  prison 
mates  forced  the  unguarded  door,  and  sped  across  the  unin- 
habited fields  to  the  Bravo.  But  not  for  tiimself  alone  had 
Fabian  dared  the  risk  ;  his  fleet  and  hardy  mustang  bore 
away  Franeesca  too,  and  when,  hungry  and  exhausted,  their 
worn-out  hone  sunk  under  them  on  the  banks  of  the  wished- 
for  river,  each  was  the  other's  only  earthly  possession. 
There  Victor,  who  was  in  quest  of  a  cook  and  chambermaid 


64  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

to  meet  my  arrival,  stumbled  upon  them,  and  inducted  them 
in  due  form  in  my  service. 

MY  NEW  HOUSE. 

Ten  days  after  my  arrival  on  the  Bravo,  my  house — the 
first,  and  then  only,  habitation  with  glass  windows  and  pan- 
elled doors  in  this  young  island  of  civilization — was  in  a  state 
to  receive  us,  and  with   no  small  importance  we  went  into 
possession.     The  large  symmetrical  sashed   doors  gave  our 
cottage  in  the  wilderness  a   cheerful,  lightsome   appearance, 
and  it  seemed  to  look  out  upon  the  desert  hills,  and  lonely, 
untravelled  river,  with  a  wide-awake,  astonished  air  of  inquiry 
into  the  wherefore  of  its  position.     We  had  a  house  then,  but 
no  furniture  ;  some  was  exploring  its  way  to  Eagle  Pass  at,  our 
order,  and  in  the  course  of  time  was  likely  to  find  its  destina- 
tion ;  but — meanwhile  ?     In  these  improved   times  furniture 
is  difficult  of  attainment  at  Eagle  Pass,  for  we  are  still  desti- 
tute of  skilled  mechanical  labor,  though  the  caricature  there- 
of by  Mexican  hands  does  exist,  but  in  the  ancient  days  of 
this  settlement,  that  is  to  say,  fifteen  months  ago,  a  suite  of 
decent  movables  was  but  a  flattering  dream.     It  might  come 
to  pass  at  some  dim  far-away  period  of  the  future,  but  the 
chances  were  not  in  its  favor.     There  was,  however,  a  re- 
source open  to  us,  and,  thanks  to  some  border  experience, 
we  soon  made  it  available.     A  wide,  shallow  box  was  raised 
on    some  very    strong,    if  not   elegantly  carved,  feet,   and 
there  was  a  table.     With  a  white  cloth,  our  breakfast-tray 
did  not  make  a  bad  figure  on  it,  and  covered  with  a  bright 
blanket,  it  did  duty  as  a  centre-table.     A  side-board,  out  of 
a  large,  square  box,  with  a  shelf  in  it,  and  curtained  with  a 
high-colored  French  print,  and  a  lounge  to  match,  was  soon 
created,  together  with  a  stand  and  dressing-table  en  suite,  as 


GARDENING.  C5 

people   arc    particular    to    s;iy  of    their    carved    rosewood 
Louis  Quatorse  ameublemmtt.      Our>  flashed    out  with   a 

dashing  air  of  pretension  that  would  be  quite  unbearable  in 
mere  rosewood  and  mahogany,  and  I  felt  in  my  heart  all  the 
pride  and  self-satisfaction  the  creations  of  our  handiwork 
carried  in  their  faces.  I  had  never  before  (riven  much  thought 
to  the  adornment  of  person  or  house,  beyond  the  essentials 
of  comfort  and  propriety,  but  now  that  I  had  found  how  much 
OOttldhe  done  with  calico  and  old  boxes,  the  tape,  tacks,  and 
tack-hammer  were  never  out  of  my  hands  for  the  first  two  or 
three  weeks.  I  am  not  sure  whether,  in  the  exuberance  of 
my  vanity  and  delight,  I  did  not  take  them  to  sleep  with  me, 
and,  at  any  rate,  I  am  certain  that  when  my  New  York  made 
furniture  did  arrive,  it  was  received  in  the  family  with 
much  contemptuous  indifference  as  an  expletive,  third  cousin 
from  the  country.  What  was  it  in  comparison  to  the  dear 
offspring  of  our  love  ? 

GARDENING. 

The  next  engrossing  object  of  ambition  was  a  garden,  but 
in  that  all  my  efforts  were  foiled,  all  my  aspirations  doomed 
to  disappointment.  I  tried  vines,  they  only  sprung  from  the 
ground  to  wilt  and  die  ;  I  tried  flowers,  they  would  not 
spring  at  all  ;  I  tried  vegetables,  they  only  raised  their  heads 
in  green  promise  to  grow  sick  and  die,  or  be  eaten  off  by  the 
rats.  The  soil  about  Fort  Duncan,  and  the  little  settlement 
above  in  which  our  pioneer  tent  was  pitched,  is  a  high  bank 
of  sand  and  gravel,  and  seems  but  lately  upheaved  in  some 
Plutonic  throe.  Gardens  can  be  made  almost  any  where 
under  this  sky,  if  the  soil  is  patiently  fertilized  and  watered  ; 
even  on  the  sterile  spot  that  encircles  Fort  Duncan.  This  is 
stated  advisedly,  for  I  noted  carefully   the  progress  of  the 


66  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

only  crop  raised  there  as  yet— a  single  bean,  an  enormous 
red  giant  of  the  family  of  running  beans.  It  was  brought 
out  and  presented  by  me  to  our  neighbor,  and  was  regularly 
watered  on  the  alternate  days,  or  thereabouts,  and  carefully 
tended  always.  This  crop  of  one  bean  had  a  prodigious 
growth,  and  produced  fifty  fold,  but  then  a  man  and  team 
were  necessary  to  cultivate  it  properly,  and  it  certainly  occu- 
pied more  time  and  industry  than  will  be  given  to  these 
leaves,  so  that  it  becomes  a  fair  question  in  productive 
economy  whether  this  book  is  worth  a  bean,  and  also  whether 
that  bean  was  worth  the  cost  of  cultivation. 

My  horticultural  failures  were  the  more  dispiriting  from 
the  perfect  success  of  the  family  at  Eagle  Pass— there  was 
then  but  one  family  at  the  county  seat,  three  miles  below 
Fort  Duncan,  and  that  one  lived  in  a  tent,  not  h  ing  been 
there  long  enough  to  put  up  a  house,  though  they  ad  made 
haste  and  fenced  in  a  garden. 

Mr.  Campbell  was  one  of  those  open-handed  Christians, 
whose  principal  joy  is  to  share  out  whatever  good  things  of 
this  life  fall  to  his  lot,  and  his  garden  at  Engle  Pass  glad- 
dened all  the  tables  of  the  settlement  as  fully  and  liberally  as 
his  own.  The  towns  on  the  Mexican  side  sent  in  their  con- 
tribution of  green  corn,  sweet  potatoes,  monster  onions,  y  ow 
plums,  peaches,  quinces,  apples  and  figs,  but  with  such  o- 
vokin«'  irregularity,  that  we  were  more  than  ready  to  h  jn 
to  Mr.  Campbell's  advice,  and  choose  our  homestead  where 
we  could  plant  orchards  for  ourselves.  Others  went  down 
to  Eagle  Pass  to  settle  opposite  the  Escondida  for  commercial 
reasons  ;  because  it  was  on  the  right  side  of  the  fords  and 
paths  precious  to  contrabandists,  and  because  it  lay  in  better 
vicinity  to  the  semicircle  of  Mexican  towns  that  spread  their 
arc  in  front  of  it,  and  radiate  trade  into  the  mining  districts 
beyond  them  ;  but  the  reasons  that  moved  me  thereto  were  of 


CHINO.  GY 

1,  ss  solid  nature.  I  pined  for  shade,  and  fruit  trees  whose  over- 
arching arms  should  enfold  me  in  a  temple  of  tranquil  repose. 
It  is  only  under  the  shadow  of  living  foliage  that  I  can  entirely 
possess  myself  and  live — untrammelled  by  the  tedious  weight 
of  society — with  my  thought*,  my  books,  and  my  birds.  Gar- 
dening is  with  me  an  occupation  and  a  delight,  and  I  could 
not  wait  the  slow  outcomin£s  of  the  ungrateful  soil  above  Fort 
Duncan,  neither  was  my  l^'kI  l<»rd  and  master  disposed  to 
forego  the  fine  fishing  and  bathing  proffered  by  the  p]scondida, 
or  any  of  us  unmindful  how  far  its  clear  waters  were  prefer- 
able for  taste  and  health,  to  the  turbid  and  often  brackish 
current  of  the  Rio  Bravo.  The  pecuniary  interests  we  had 
planted  on  the  dry  gravel  bank  above  the  military  post,  were 
thrown  overboard  under  the  pressure  of  these  considerations, 
and  at  an  early  day  we  rode  down  to  select  a  site  for  our 
homestead  and  garden — and  perhaps  decide  as  well  the  exact 
location  of  the  town  of  Eagle  Pass. 

CHINO. 

Before  this  was  absolutely  fixed  upon,  or  rather  as  an  im- 
portant preliminary  to  any  study  of  the  country,  I  made  it 
mv  particular  business,  after  establishing  friendly  and  well- 
defined  relations  with  my  servants,  my  pigeons  and  my 
poultry,  to  come  to  a  perfect  understanding  with  my  bluk 
pony.  Chino  was  a  full-blooded,  native-born  citizen  of 
Mexico,  endowed,  like  his  human  peon  brothers,  with  the 
Mexican  virtues  of  patience,  endurance,  and  abstemiousness, 
!  sides  Beveml  other  somewhat  less  creditable  habitudes.  He 
was  slv,  terribly  inclined  to  petty  larcenies,  and  at  first  rather 
addicted  to  shying  oil'  his  burden,  if  the  rider  was  not  on  the 
guard  ;  but  he  nlwaya  maintained  a  most  demure  and  re- 
spectable countenance,  and  had  such  soft,  well-bred  ways 


68  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

that  he  never  suffered  in  his  character.  It  is  astonishing 
how  many  quiet,  well-mannered  sins  that  sage  moralist,  the 
world,  will  forgive  to  smooth-paced  men  and  horses.  Unfor- 
tunate circumstances  educate  too  many  of  the  youth  of  both 
classes  into  evil  ways,  and  I  imputed  Chino's  sly  immoralhies 
to  cruel  treatment  in  his  colthood,  and  the  use  of  that  bar- 
barous implement  of  horse  torture,  the  Mexican  bridle,  which 
fills  the  poor  animal's  mouth  with  a  load  of  jagged  iron,  to  such 
an  extent  that  he  cannot  drink  with  it,  though  the  flowing 
river  may  lave  the  saddle  skirts.  The  stoic  Mexican,  true  to 
his  Indian  nature,  endures  suffering  himself,  in  silent,  passive 
fortitude,  and  he  has  no  tenderness  or  sympathy  for  the  suf- 
ferings of  any  thing  else.  The  worst  trait  I  have  observed 
in  them  is  this  almost  universal  want  of  feeling  for  animals.  I 
know  society  and  Mrs.  Grundy  keep  their  keenest  ridicule 
for  the  weakness  of  caring  for  the  agonies  of  helpless  and 
dependent  beings.  They  were  made  to  be  abused  and 
trampled  upon,  doubtless,  and  it  is  childish  to  pause  in  the 
important  pursuits  of  life, — the  set  of  a  hat  or  the  length  of  a 
skirt,  for  example, — to  think  of  such  trifles;  but  still  I  could 
wish  the  enslaved  Red  Man  on  our  borders  to  share  more 
largely  in  the  genialities  of  life, "if  it  were  only  that  it  might 
soften  his  heart  to  more  kindliness  toward  those  things  that 
feel  and  suffer  below  him  on  the  ladder  of  existence. 

When  I  ordered  a  light  American  bridle  to  replace  the 
heavy,  uncouth  Mexican  bit,  Chino  shook  his  head  with  a 
short,  disdainful  toss  that  spoke  his  mind  as  plain  as  a  diction- 
ary: "That  smooth  and  sh-nder  bit  of  wire  can't  check  me. 
I  see  I  shall  have  my  own  way  on  the  road." 

Victor,  who  is  now  a  fixture  in  the  family,  hinted  a  fear  that 
Chino  would  have  no  respect  to  this  new  and  gentle  system 
of  government,  yet  he  seemed  gratified,  for  he  and  Chino  are 
intimate  personal  friends.     When  I  assured  him  that  I  had 


THE  MC 1. BERRY  GROVE.  GO 

no  fenr  about  it,  and  should   adopt  it  invariably,  for  I  could 
not  ride  with  pleasure  while  I  knew  my  bone  was  in  misery, 

Fabian,  who  was  adjusting  the  girths,  raised  his  great,  I 
Indian  eves  in  surprisj  that  any  prison  of  sound  mind  could 
lake  so  seriously  the  comfort  of  a  horse,  and  to  this  day  I 
su-pect  he  and  the  rest  of  our  Mexican  family  set  down  my 
determined  aversion  to  Mexican  bridles  as  a  touch  of  harm- 
leas  insanity.  As  for  Chino,  after  satisfying  himself  on  one 
or  two  occasions,  that  arguments  of  force  really  did  lay  in 
tin.-  American  substitute,  he  yielded  the  point  with  an  excel- 
lent grace,  and  thenceforth  stepped  ofi'  as  I  like  my  horse  to 
step,  lightly  and  cheerily,  as  if  lie  was  out  for  his  own  private 
pleasure,  and  carried  me  where  I  desired  to  go,  out  of  pure 
good  will,  and  a  general  disposition  to  oblige.  This  being 
amicably  settled,  as  such  things  almost  always  may  be,  if 
the  rider  is  not. more  perverse  than  the  average  of  hon 
Chino  and  I  rambled  about  at  will,  and  without  much 
troubling  ourselves  about  Indians  or  anything  eUe  ;  we  ex- 
plored together,  with  great  mutual  content,  the  grassy  dells 
and  tangled  thickets  around  our  home.  In  most  cases  it  was, 
probably,  the  first  time  their  silent  shades  had  been  dis- 
turbed by  the  visit  of  a  white  person,  but  we  found  many 
lovely  nooks  that  well  repaid  my  hermit  tastes  for  the  trouble 
of  exploration. 

THE  MULBERRY  GROVE. 

It  has  been  already  explained  that  Eagle  Pass  is  a  two- 
headed  child,  with  one  face  looking  above  and  the  other 
below  Fort  Duncan.  Our  new  cottage  and  our  first  rest  was 
in  the  upper  place  ;  but  one  delicious  morning,  about  the 
middle  of  April,  when  the  northern  world  is  yet  fretting  at 
the  chilly,  frosty,  changing  weather,  we  rode  down  the  green 


70  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

tree-sprinkled  terrace,  between  hill  and  river,  to  examine 
more  closely  the  advantages  of  the  elder  Eagle  Pass  ;  that 
old,  official  Eagle  Pass,  whose  name  already  boasted  the 
venerable  rust  of  three  years'  antiquity,  while  its  young  coun- 
terpart was  but  a  new  christened  three  months  babe.  As  we 
cantered  along,  now  glancing  at  the  silver  face  of  the  Bravo, 
here  about  the  width,  depth  and  outline  of  the  Hudson  at 
Albany  ;  now  admiring  the  leafy  arcade  that  veils  the  bridal  of 
the  coy  Escondida  with  the  sullen  and  capricious  Bravo,  and 
ngain  pausing  to  measure  with  a  second  look,  the  long  fan- 
tastic arms  of  some  far-reaching  mesquete,  we  came  all  at 
once  on  a  charming  little  grove  of  mulberry  trees,  laden  with 
fruit  and  foliage,  and  drawn  up  in  close  company  at  the  foot 
of  the  last  terrace  towards  the  river.  We  wheeled  into  it, 
and  discovered,  hid  away  like  birds'  nests  under  the  cool, 
interlacing  shade,  a  brace  of  Mexican  tents,  with  a  whole 
family  of  men,  women  and  children  humming  and  swarming 
around  them,  like  bees  stirred  up  at  our  unexpected  advent. 
A  wonderfully  ragged  and  stately  gentleman  came  promptly 
to  my  bridle  rein,  and  proffered  his  services  with  the  mien 
and  language  of  an  emperor.  Indeed  I  doubt  whether  his 
crowned  namesake  of  Brazil  carries  his  honors  with  such  a 
princely  air  as  our  adobe-maker  Pedro  does  his  tatters.  I 
often  marvel  how  such  brevity  of  original  material  could  be 
manufactured  into  this  extensive  showing  of  fluttering  shreds. 
I  am  confident  Pedro  of  Brazil  could  not  get  up  such  a  dis- 
play on  the  narrow  limits  of  four  or  five  yards  of  cotton  ;  yet 
Pedro  of  Eagle  Pass  did  it  with  the  easy  self-possession  of  a 
finished  aristocrat.  Does  this  oriental  grace  of  speecli  and 
bearing  come  to  the  Indian  race  by  Asiatic  descent  ?  It  is 
not  the  gift  of  the  white  race.  The  peasantry  of  Europe 
have  their  poetry  and  their  noble  aspirations,  but  they  have 


DELICA  TE  FA  RE.  71 

it  not  in  the  form  or  in  the  wild  plenitude  which  is  common 
to  the  red  rare,  whether  bond  or  free.  It  is  a  part  of  their 
inheritance,  with  that  wearisome  metate  before  which  this 
I  >r  girl  kneels  ami  grinds  her  corn  for  bread,  exactly  as  the 
handmaidens  of  Abraham's  household  ground-  theirs  some 
thousand  years  ago.  These  are  the  "  nether  millstone"  which 
scripture  law  made  a  household  exemption  from  debt,  and  it 
h,  1  think,  one  of  the  first  precedents  on  record  ;  but  like  the 
Puritans,  who  resolved  to  be  governed  by  the  laws  of  God 
"until  they  had  time  to  make  better,"  we  have  spent  many 
centuries  in  amendments  before  we  came  round  again  to  the 
simple  justice  of  heaven.  Just  such  round  blocks,  like  a 
granite  cheese  set  up  on  three  little  feet,  are  painted  in  the 
oldest  tombs  of  Egypt,  and  by  this  time  Layard  lias,  doubt- 
less, disentombed  the  like  in  the  ruins  of  ancient  Ninereb, 
but  he  may  not  know  their  uses  if  he  has  never  seen  America, 
and  fancy  they  are  the  altars  of  the  domestic  Lares  of  the 
buried  nations.  Not  exactly  a  wrong  conclusion  after  all. 
Whether  or  not  the  Lost  Ten  Tribes,  or  the  colonists  of 
Sesostris,  brought  the  metate  to  America  with  the  art  of 
building  with  the  huge  sun-dried  adobe,  the  same  things 
have  been  common  to  them  all ;  only  the  daughters  of  Judea 
ground  barley,  and  our  native  American  girls,  Indian-corn,  to 
make  the  unleavened  cakes  called — I  know  not  what  in  Asia 
— but  here,  tortillas. 

DELICATE  FARE. 

Patient  Barbara  had  just  ground  off  one  batch  of  dough, 
when  our  visit  fell  upon  her,  and  electrified  her  spirit  with 
hospitable  visions.  The  lye-soaked  corn  was  ready  at  her 
side,  and  she  set  about  preparing  another  mess  with  more 
scrupulous  nicety.     The  process  attracted  me,  it  was  per- 


Y2  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

formed  with  such  quick  and  peculiar  dexterity  of  hand.  To 
bite  out  one  by  one  tho  dark  spot  of  every  kernel  of  corn, 
just  where  it  was  set  in  the  cob,  would  be  slow  work  for  the 
uninitiated,  but  our  hostess  of  the  mulberry  grove  kept  her 
hands  and  teeth  in  action  with  the  quickness  and  sleight  of  a 
practised  biter.  "  Why  take  all  this  trouble,  Barbara  ?"  I 
inquired,  after  watching  her  a  while. 

"  To  make  the  tortillas  clean  and  white,  if  you,  my  lady 
and  mistress,  (mi  ama  y  duena)  will  honor  me  by  eating 
them,"  said  Barbara,  dropping  the  last  kernel  from  her  white 
teeth. 

"  To  make  the  tortillas  clean  and  white,"  I  repeated.  "  Ah, 
yes,  I  understand  now,  but  I  cannot  stay  to  eat,  to-day ;  we 
absolutely  must  return  home  in  time  for  dinner;"  and  ]  re- 
treated to  the  overhanging  branches  of  the  mulberries,  now 
in  full  fruit,  and  raining  their  purple  wealth  on  the  ground 
whenever  the  breeze  swept  their  thick  and  rustling  foliage. 
There,  too,  had  been  over  much  care  for  my  entertainment. 
Eager  to  serve  and  to  please,  the  children  had  made  a  rapid 
foray  on  the  largest  fruit,  which  they  knew  best  of  anybody 
where  to  find,  and  as  I  turned  from  the  choicest  of  tortillas,  I 
confronted  a  boy  of  some  ten  years,  anxiously  holding  up  to  my 
acceptance  a  lap  -full  of  the  choicest  mulberries.  But  that  lap  ! 
At  some  foregone  period  it  had  been  white  cotton,  at  least 
there  was  something  in  its  mixed  complexion  that  hinted  at 
such  an  origin,  but  time  and  the  experiences  of  boyhood  had 
invested  it  with  a  strength  of  tint  rivalling  in  depth  of  color 
the  berries  which  the  polite  owner  was  offering  to  my  use. 
I  was  taken  with  a  sudden  disinclination  to  eat  more  berries 
before  dinner,  but  not  to  wound  the  feelings  of  the  little 
fellow  who  had  taken  this  pains  to  please  me,  the  berries 
were  carried  home  with  us, — a  part  of  the  way — and  his  ex- 
ertions duly  acknowledged  with  a  piece  of  silver. 


THE  SEMINOLE  CHIEF.  73 

From  thai  day,  the  mulberry-grove  became  the  home  of 
my  heart,  and  when  I  leave  it  for  another,  whether  it  be 

this  tide,  or  tin-  <>hei\  of  thai  gate  which  opens  not  to  the 
returning  traveller,  1  trust  it  may  become  the  Beat,  or  in  some 
■  the  helpful  appanage,  of  a  free  mission  or  manual  labor 
Bchool,  for  the  dispi  bs<  Bsed  but  natural  inheritors  of  this  soil — 
the  homeless  and  neglected  children  of  the  Red  Race. 

THE  8EMINOLE  CHIEF. 

Wi:  wore  Bipping  our  chocolate,  with  every  door  thrown 
wide  to  welcome  the  breeze,  which  rarely  denies  us  its  rust- 
ling presence,  when  we  were  astonished  to  see  Francesca 
coming  up  at  a  rapid  pace.  "  What  can  this  unexampled  haste 
in  our  easy-paced  handmaiden  possibly  mean  ?  It  has  a  por- 
tentous augury,"  thought  we.      In  she  came,  bo  much  excited 

llmost  to  let  go  her  tenacious  hold  on  the  ever-present 
reboso,  and  pointed,  too  far  gone  for  speech,  towards  the 
hills.  We  looked  out  in  surprise,  for  there,  emerging  from 
the  broken  ground  in  a  direction  that  we  knew  was  untrav- 
ersed  by  any  but  the  wild  and  hostile  Indians,  came  forth  a 
long  procession  of  horsemen.  The  sun  flashed  back  from  a 
mixed  array  of  arms  and  barbaric  gear,  but  as  this  unexpect- 
ed army,  which  seemed  to  have  dropped  upon  us  from  the 
skies,  drew  nearer  it  grew  less  formidable  in  apparent  num- 
nd  opened  upon  us  a  more  pacific  aspect.  Some  rea- 
sonably well-mounted  Indians  circled  round  a  dark  nucleus 
of  female  riders,  who  seemed  objects  of  special  care.  But 
the  l«>ng  straggling  rear-guard  was  worth  seeing.  It  threw 
Falstaff's  ragged  regiment  altogether  in  the  shade.  8nch  an 
array  of  all  manners  and  sizes  of  animals,  mounted  bv  all  ages, 

es  and  sizes  of  negroes,  piled  up  to  a  most  bewildering 
height,  on  and  among  such  a  promiscuous  assemblage  of 
4 


74  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

blankets,  babies,  cooking  utensils,  and  savage  traps,  in  gen- 
eral, never  were  or  could  be  held  together  on  horseback 
by  any  beings  on  earth  but  themselves  and  their  red  broth- 
ers. The  party  began  to  break  away  and  vanish  into  the 
little  ravines  that  dip  down  to  the  river  edge,  and  we  under- 
stood by  these  signs  they  were  encamping  among  us. 

The  word  soon  circulated  that  it  was  Wild  Cat,  the  famous 
Seminole  chief,  who  played  fast  and  loose  so  long  with  our 
army  in  Florida,  baffling  adroitly  the  efforts  of  our  best  sol- 
diers, and  showing  us  many  acute  lessons  in  savage  tactics, 
though  we  never  had  the  wit  to  turn  them  to  profit.  His 
tribe  had  lands  assigned  them  in  Nebrasca,  the  territory  al- 
lowed, for  the  time,  to  the  Indians  who  were  driven  or  in- 
veigled to  come  west  of  the  Mississippi,  by  the  relentless  pol- 
icy of  the  whites,  but  he  has  left  them  in  discontent.  lie  lias 
won  too  much  savage  glory  in  his  wars  wiih  the  whites,  and 
lias  in  him  too  much  of  the  restlessness  of  his  race,  to  stay 
cooped  up  among  government  forts  and  agents,  with  r.< 
higher  hope  or  employment  than  taking  once  a  year  a  long 
bru!al  debauch,  when  the  annual  bounty  for  their  lost  inher- 
itance is  paid  to  his  tribe.  Wild  Cat  has  turned  his  back  on 
all  this  and  come  out  to  the  Mexican  bolder,  with  his  imme- 
diate servants,  followers  and  kinsmen,  to  find  a  home  and  a 
field  more  cono-enial  to  the  heart  of  a  Red  warrior. 

He  came  in  state  to  make  his  call  on  us,  attended  by  his 
cousin  and  lieutenant,  the  Crazy  Bear,  and  some  other  braves, 
and  marshalled  with  all  ceremony  by  his  interpreter,  Gopher 
John,  a  full-blooded  negro.  John  does  not  look  as  dishonest 
as  his  character  runs,  but  might  very  well  have  earned  his 
prc-name  of  "  Gopher"  in  the  way  it  is  told  of  him.  He  was 
employed,  so  runs  the  story,  by  one  of  our  gallant  officers 
serving  in  Florida  to  supply  and  guard  a  reservoir  of  the  kind 
of  turtle  called  gophers,  in  the  "  Orange  State."     Every  day 


TJS  8BMIN01  6  CB1XF. 

John  ]  If  With  a  fresh  supply  of  the  luxury,  and 

iving   his  stipulated  silver  iherefor,  consigned  it  to  Lhe 
,-voir.     Aiter  >irred  to  the  officer  as  sin- 

gular tint  his  stool  did  not  incn  see,  as  it  oughl  with  all  th 
daily  reinforcements.  A  iratch  wi  ,and  then  il  came  out 
that  John  stole  back  at  nigh!  the  gophers  he  sold  the  G  snerai 
in  the  morning.  He  took  hi>  d  ioa  rery  calmly,  and  has 
rather  prided  himself  on  the  title  of  "Gopher"  John,  which 
was  fixed  up  »n  him  by  that  affair  for  life. 

Wild  ("at  was  dressed  in  fanciful  Indian  costume,  but  his 
whole  attii-e  had  the  rather  un-Indian  merit  of  neatness.  A 
row  of  crescent-shaped  silver  medals,  arranged  in  something 
like  a  breast-plate,  glittered  on  his  breast,  and  he  had  good 
arms.     Perhaps  he  reads  Byron,  for  not  only  he 

Shawl  of  red  lightly  round  hu  templet  wore," 

but  the  whole  air  and  costume  closely  resembled  one  of  the 

favorites. 

He  saluted  the  ladies  with  a  sedate  and  graceful  how,  and 

RCCepted  a  chair  with  a  grave  dignity  of  attitude  becoming  a 

chief.     He  then  directed  his  interpreter  to  say,  he  thanked 

the  (r'<  ;»t  Spirit  for  placing  him,  face  to  face,  and  in   peace, 

with  the  whites,  whom  he  now  regarded  as  friends  and  broth- 

in  this  distant  country.     The  conversation  wi  itinued 

■ 

on  both  sides  in  the  same  strain,  and  in  every  sentence  and 
attitude  there  shone  out  the  B  DBS  impassive  habit  of  Belf- 
;.  and  the  s;ime  proud,  inflexible  spirit  of  self-reli- 
ance. On  taking  a  j  with  the  gentlemen  he  gave  a  pledge 
indicative  of  a  desire  for  mutual  good-will,  and  added,  all 
wards,  that  once  when  he  met  white  men,  blood  flowed,  but 

.v  he  had  no  thought  in  his  heart   hut  friendship  and  a 
desire  for  peaoi  . 

One  of  the  ladies,  not  dreaming  that  his  ignorance  of  on: 


76  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

language  was  but  the  politic  feigning  of  the  wily  chieftain, 
remarked  on  the  beauty  and  force  of  his  language,  the  dignity 
of  his  bearing,  and  the  probable  insincerity  of  heart  that  kept 
it  all  company.  Not  a  shade  of  look  or  manner  betrayed 
that  he  comprehended  a  word  of  it,  but  we  are  now  satisfied 
that  "Wild  Cat  can  talk  English  fluently  enough  when  it 
pleases  him  to  find  use  for  his  tongue  in  that  way. 

His  present  role  is  that  of  a  pacific  and  mediating  leader, 
and  if,  as  we  suspect,  all  this  is  but  acting  a  part,  it  must  be 
confessed  he  plays  it  superbly,  and  while  he  chooses  to  sus- 
tain it  nothing  could  surprise  him  out  of  this  pre-determined 
calmness,  and  cold  assumption  of  ignorance. 

For  six  months  he  has  been  passing  from  tribe  to  tribe, 
along  this  extended  frontier,  as  he  says,  to  urge  them  to  ab- 
stain from  hostilities,  and  enter  into  peace-treaties  with  the 
whites.  He  has,  with  his  band,  suffered  immense  fatigue  and 
privations,  but  no  one  can  estimate  the  extent  of  the  knowl- 
edge he  has  acquired  of  the  border  country,  its  passes,  its 
capacity  for  forage,  water,  and  all  the  items  of  savage  attack 
and  defence.  A  seven  years'  Indian  war  would  not  teach 
our  white  officers  so  much  of  what  it  is  necessary  to  know, 
as  this  ambitious,  far-reaching  chief  has  laid  up  in  this  pain- 
ful but  effective  six  months'  study.  So,  too,  of  the  powers 
and  dispositions  of  the  long  list  of  jarring  Indian  tribes  in 
whose  councils  he  mingled  with  the  self-reliance  of  a  re- 
nowned chief  of  their  own  lineage  ;  what  white  man  c<uild 
learn  as  much,  could  he  even  speak  their  tongue,  and  think 
and  reason  in  the  habitudes  of  Indian  life  and  sentiment  '? 

Crazy  Bear  has  more  of  the  crude,  imperfect  savage  in  his 
lofric  and  his  aims  than  his  chief,  but  he  seems  to  b  iievc  in 
him,  and  follow  him  as  the  model,  according  to  his  Indian 
ideas,  of  all  that  is  wise,  heroic,  and  illustrious.  Left  to  him- 
self the  Bear  would  kill  any  white  man  he  met  alone  in  the 


THE  C  .I.V/'  OOTTAC 

forest  with  ferocious  delight,  because  he  hates  the  race,  and 
feeta  lhat,  whether  in   p<  tee  or  war,  the  Red  Race  is  a 
dying  under  his  heel.  n  the  morrow  he  would  1 

rum  at  the  "white  man's  door, and  profess  deceitful  friendship; 
his  brutal  appetiu  ,  and  he  thinks  all  arts,  even 

■  •lioud  and  treachery,  are  well  used  in  Bpoiling  and  cir- 
cumventing the  enemy.  Beyond  the  Buccess  of  the  moment 
he  cannot  Btretch  his  eye,  but  Wild  Cat  is  of  loftier  mould; 
ind  bows  to  the  triumph  of  the  white  man  as  to  the 
inevitable  decree  of  fate,  and  next  to  conquering  the  con- 
queror, bis  extended  vision  shows  him  that  it  would  be  v 
to  make  terras  and  become  the  ally  instead  of  the  victim  of 
this  irresistible  greatness. 

With   a   grain  of  wise   and  liberal  for<  ispiring 

savage  could  be  made  the  soldier  of  the  Union,  and  the  bui 
and  most  invaluable  defender  of  this  frontier 


THE  CANE  COTTAGE. 

Ix  a  few  weeks  after  my  first  visit  to  the  mulberry  grove, 
T  was  delightfully  established  in  a  reed  cottage  under  the 
thick-set  canopy  of  foliage,  exactly  where  we  found  Pedn 
tent.     The  metate  had  given  place  to  an  extempore  table  for 
writing,  embroidery,  and  a  variety  of  other  femu        :  i  Ips 
idh  disguised  in  the  form  of  work.     This  change  v 

not  an  inapt  expression  of  the  difference  of  female  life  in 
patriarchal  and  city  periods.     I  do  not  imply  the  higl 

possible  civilization,  though  they  are  bcI  ools,  and  aids  to  it  on 
its  upward  path,  any  more  than  patliarCi  d  CU 
the  highest  moral  good.  The  bread-making,  blanket- weaving 
period,  in  which  worn  in  walks  out  her  tread-mill  round  of 
life  in  mental  torpor  and  laborious  usefulness,  reads  well  in 
Arcadian  poetry,  but  it   is   not    the    pur    I    nor  the  happiest. 


78  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

Sacred  history,  in  depicting  a  life  not  far  removed  in  its  main 
outlines  from  this  Ave  are  witnessing  on  the  border,  gives  us 
strong  details  of  domestic   strife,  fraternal  wars,  neighborly 

deceit,  and  mutual  injustice.  Man  was  not  .high  where 
woman  was  so  low,  and  he  cannot  rise  without  taking  woman 
with  him. 

But  neither  is  the  bu<v  trifling  of  that  we  call  refinement 
very  much  better ;  though  it  is  more  pleasant  to  the  sight,  as 
the  gay  tulip  is  fairer- looking  than  the  rough  -favored,  but 
ful  potato.  It  is  only  when  society  has  shaped  itseif  so 
as  to  expect  service  from  all  its  members,  when  the  fruit  shall 
follow  the  flower,  and  graceful  adornment  keep  time  with 
solid  utility,  that  woman  and  civilization  can  be  admitted  to 
have  found  a  position  of  value.  Hard-working  Barbara,  who 
cooks  and  washes  for  her  hard- working  mate  ;  bustling  Mar- 
tha,  who  makes  pickles  and  preserves  to  help  out  the  fussy 
hospitality  of  here,  who,  in  turn,  lives  perhaps  by  thrusting 
himself  between  producer  and  consumer,  and  leeches  from 
their  industry  what  supports  his  non-producing  existence ; 
exquisite  Madalina,  who  touches  the  harp,  out-paints  nature, 
and  out-perfumes  the  rose,  the  tulip  ornament  of  the  bill 
and  promenade,  are  neither  of  them  more  than  the  third  part 
of  the  complete  woman  of  complete  civilization. 

Francesca,  seated  on  the  ground,  pretending  to  sew,  beside 
Barbara,  while  her  companion  is  crushing  the  lye-softened 
corn  under  that  ceaseless  roller,  inspired  me  with  all  these 
philosophical  ideas — that  is,  if  I  have,  not  borrowed  them 
of  somebody  and  forgotten  where  to  return  them — for  surely 
the  three  women  who  now  live  under  the  shade  of  this  grove 
do  not  altogether  perform  what  one  should  do,  and  could  do, 
under  better  arrangements  in  the  dutv  assigned  to  human  kind 
as  the  inheritor  of  the  world's  dominion.  The  condition  of 
the  gift  is  to  "t>ubdue  the  earth." 


THE  CASK  00TTA6  79 

A  comprehensive  phrase,  and  with  its  corresponding  con- 
dition, that  labor  n  man's  lot,  clearly  implies  that  all  the 
cendants  of  Adam  are  bound  to  aid  in  bringing  forth  the 
beauty  and  the  riches  of  their  earthly  estates  and  steward- 
ship, 

All  this  has  very  remote  application  to  the  building  of  our 
house  of  reeds,  yet  that  is  worth  some  notice  for  its  simplicity. 
This  class  of  shelters — house  is  rather  an  assuming  word,  and 
a  mere  hovel  it  is  not — is  common  in  all  the  rich  sequestered 
valleys  of  Mexico,  and  has  the  merit  of  demanding  no  heavier 
machinery  in  the  construction  than  an  Indian's  knife.     In  the 
magnificent  and  enchanting  vales  of  Tehuantepec,  two  or 
three  of  the  natives  will  build  one  in  a  day,  without  a  nail  or 
the  sound   of  a  hammer.     Here  the  material  is   not  so  excel- 
lent or  abundant,  and  it  required  about  three  days    to  b: 
the  wherewithal  from  the  river  side,  and  construct  a  weather- 
proof apartment   of  something  liko  twelve  by  twenty  1 
Some  upright  forks  are  cut  and  set  in  the  ground  to  receive 
light  cross-poles  for  the  roof.     To  the  uprights  arc  lashed 
long  reeds  with  threads  of  pita,  both  growing  spontaneously 
and  ready  for  use  all  about  us  :  the  cane  in  the  low  borders 
of  the  river,  and  the  pita  on  the  dryest  ridges.     The  pita 
bears  in  March  and  April  a  splendid  cone  of  creamy  flowers 
in  the  centre  of  its  cluster  of  evergreen  leaves.     These  1< ;;. 
slightly    scorched    by  a    slow  tire,   break   into    strong   and 
durable  threads  a  yard  long,  and  with  the  tall  golden   1 
make   excellent    building  materials  for  summer  houses  an  I 
a  vast  variety  of  garden  architecture.     My  cottage  reseml 
an  enormous  biid-<  the  light  and  air  streaming  thro;. 

-work,  at  will ;  or   shut  out,  when    desired,  by  cur- 
tains lining  the  inside.     This  roof,  however,  was  rather  I    1 
the  rain,  even  with   the  help  of  the  flexile  mulberry 
that  interlaced   above   and   aronnd  it;    so  a  light 


80  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

thatching  of  a  kind  of  long,  broad-leaved  grass,  was  laid  upon 
it,  and  held  in  its  place  by  another  course  of  reeds  lied  across 
and  to  the  inner  basket-work.  A  cooler,  fresher,  and  more 
picturesque  abode  I  never  expect  to  inhabit,  and  all  was 
nature's  unbou^ht  frift. 

Pedro  and  his  wife  Barbara*  whom  we  displaced,  receded 
to  the  verge  of  the  grove  on  one  side,  and  Fabian  and  his 
wife  were  disposed  in  a  temporary  kitchen  and  dining-room, 
under  another  clump  of  trees  opposite,  and  thus  within  call  on 
either  hand,  the  triple  family  sit  down,  each  portion  under  its 
own  shade  trees,  in  contented  sociability. 

OUR  FLAG  INSULTED. 

Ocr  little  ark  in  the  ocean  of  solitude  has  been  stained 
with  crime.  The  blackness  of  the  peon  iniquity  is  overflowing 
upon  us,  and  we  are  too  weak  and  inert  to  dash  back  or  dyke 
out  the  hateful  tide. 

It  comes,  too,  in  the  form  of  a  daring  insult  to  our  flag ;  an 
open  high-handed  violation  of  our  laws  ;  a  noonday  invasion 
of  our  soil ;  and  all  tins  in  the  sio;ht  and  hearing  of  one  of 
oar  military  posts,  in  the  presence  of  one  of  its  officers,  and 
yet  no  man  had  the  manhood  to  hinder  the  perpetrators.  A 
quiet  and  peaceful  resident,  on  the  American  side  of  the 
river,  is  passing  his  day  of  rest  in  the  settlement  above  Fort 
Duncan,  and,  while  he  is  on  the  highway  passing  about  his 
own  affairs,  he  is  pounced  upon  by  the  bird.>  of  prey.  lie  is 
not  accused  of  any  crime,  he  is  guiltless  of  every  form  of 
offence  against  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  but  he  is  ac- 
cused of  owing  somebody  in  Mexico,  and  their  agents — bold 
in  the  sufferance  of  our  government,  and  the  countenance  and 
aid  of  a  few  miscreants  who  deal  in  kidnapping — have  not 
scrupled  to  set  our  flag  at  defiance,  and  come  on  our  soil  to 


0  D.  81 

noff  to  peon  bon 

rily  makes  a  public  brol. 

aler  in  (  cap  rum  and  k 

napping — who  drives  his  trade  in  men.  without  scruple  or 

jtI  Duncan;  for 

spoil   his  reception  there,  nor  prevent  other  men  who 

make   resounding   pro:"-  -uperlative   hon  -        from 

Iping  him,  in  this- brave  sport  of  hunting  down  debtors  for 

marl.  I       down,  like  bloodhounds,  the 

poor  he!  that  have  rled  to   our  soil  for  rei"  _. 

T:  souls  would  not  face  a  real  danger  so  freely. 

but  it  is  gay  sport  to  intercept  a  frightened  fugitive,  keep 

him  from  d<  they  hold — miracles  of  valor  that  kin 

■ — pi-  the   bre  the  stricken  peon,  and   tie  1 

hands,  and  take  him  i<>  the  ferry  to  c  ini  over  into  Mexi- 

.  to  the  debt-penalty  of  a  prison.  -  r.  This 

lone  while  the  drums  of  Fort  Dun    .:;  were  beating  their 

marti  nance  e:  fraught,  as  our  childr 

are  taught   to   believe,  with  amplest  pr  n  for  our  ci 

zens,  our  soil,  our  laws,  and  our  national  honor 

One   Sunday  was   marked   by  throe   such  3,  equally 

cowardly,  cruel,  and  defiant  of  our  la  gainst  kidnapping. 

On  that  day  three  peons  we.  _:ht,  bound,  and  carried  by 

lawless  force  from  our  soil.     Or  -  a  woman,  a  -         for  no 

debt  of  her  own,  bi  and  peon:  r  the  expenses  of 

her   father'        ath  and  funeral      She  Lad   served   years. 

scantily  fed  and  worse  clothed,  until.  of  her  miser- 

afa         edition  and  hoj  •  >f  any  change  the:  aped 

from]  and  hired  out  on  our  i  the  Bravo.    6 

soon  track  1.  as  our  laws  stand  (or  naught,  hun  :k 

i 

ut  ceremony.     Andy  if  cither  of  these  re- 
c  a  Am  ru    i  citizens,  tl 

would  ha  n  the  same.     This  will  startle  the  l 

4* 


82  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER, 

ing  citizens  of  the  Union,  and  they  will  deny  the  fact ;  yet  I 
shall  presently  show  them,  by  official  warrant,  that  it  is  true, 
and  what  will  surprise  them  more — that  their  most  zealous 
free-soil  leaders  have,  unwittingly  perhaps,  clenched  a  thou- 
sand fetters  by  a  misdirected  effort  to  make  one  of  them  a 
shade  lighter. 


THE  FALSE  WIFE.; 

Oxe  of  the  victims  of  these  chartered  man-hunters  was  in 
our  employ,  and  the  atrocious  impunity  with  which  he  was 
kidnapped  gave  me  a  deep,  indelible  distrust  of  our  border 
habits,  which  nothing  else  I  have  ever  known  here  would  jus- 
tify. It  shook  asunder  at  once  and  forever  the  bonds  of 
neighborly  good-will  with  all  the  sharers  in  the  assassin  work, 
and  made  me  feel  that  Wild  Cat  and  his  band  were  safer, 
nobler,  and  to  me  more  acceptable  company. 

"We  were  a  month  perhaps  under  the  shelter  of  our  be- 
loved reed  cottage,  when  a  tall,  slender,  and  not  ungraceful 
man,  of  nearly,  if  not  altogether,  pure  Indian  blood,  came  to 
seek  employment  in  our  bee-hive,  at  Eagle  Pass,  as  a  car- 
penter, general  servant — anything.  He  plead  for  instant  work 
and  bread  for  himself  and  his  wife,  Saloma.  She  came  with 
him — a  pert,  lively,  fluent  creature — a  very  Delilah  in  her 
officious,  caressing  ways,  and  a  Delilah,  indeed,  she  proved  to 
her  fond  husband.  He  lived  in  her,  and  hardly  could  keep 
his  eye  from  her  even  while  he  was  taking  orders  for  the 
business  of  the  day.  There  was  something  restless,  perturb- 
ed, and  wandering  in  his  looks  and  ways  ;  something  so  dif- 
ferent from  the  strirn,  self-control  of  the  Indian  habits,  that 
it  attracted  our  notice,  and,  before  many  days,  we  learned 
that  he  was  a  peon  fleeing  from  the  stripes  of  a  rigorous 
master  at  San  Juan,  some  thirty  miles  in  the  interior. 


TEE  FALSE  WIFE  83 

His  blindly  loved  Baloma  shared  his  flight,  and  her  un- 

wifelike  boast  that  Bhe  was  free  and  could  go  back  to  San 
.Juan,  and  bo  happy  whether  her  husband  was  peon  or 
not,  as  well  as  the  exaggerated  value  which  she  placed  upon 
the  simple  act  of  following  her  husband's  fortunes,  gave  me 
very  early  an  unpleasant  insight  into  her  flippant  and  selfish 
nature.  Poor  Manuel  Riofl  held  no  such  opinions  of  his 
angel.  In  his  eves  she  was  the  perfection  of  grace,  good- 
and  devotion.  In  the  still  softness  of  the  summer 
nights  I  was  often  an  amused  listener,  when  their  social  cir- 
cle gathered  round  the  prolonged  supper,  and  all  the  gossip 
and  witticism  of  their  class  were  in  circulation,  and  ne 
failed  to  observe  how  like  the  needle  to  the  pole,  his  thoughts 
always  trembled  back  to  the  slight,  talkative  thing  at  his 
Bid*  While  her  workmate,  our  gentle,  patient,  industrious 
Barbara,  had  no  eyes,  ears,  heart  or  happiness,  that  did  not 
cling  to  and  enfold  her  ragged,  stately,  kind,  but — ah,  me ! 
for  poor,  weak,  wicked  human  nature — most  inconstant  Pe- 
dro :  the  loving,  confiding  Manuel  fixed  his  steadfast  worship 
in  the  same  way,  on  a  false  and  wandering  object.  Even  in 
their  lowly  orbit  the  serpent,  Deceit,  made  his  entrance. 

This  traffic  in  debt  and  bondage  is  an  eternal  premium  to 
falsehood  and  treachery ;  it  rusts  and  corrodes  every  bond 
of  love  and  confidence,  as  a  pestilential  vapor  eats  away  and 
blackens  precious  steel-woik.  It  is  the  social  demon  of 
Mexico. 

One  Saturday  evening,  after  the  work  of  the  day  was 
r,  and  all  the  people  were  clustered  round  their  supper  in 
the  open  air,  enjoying  the  transparent  freshness  of  the  sun- 
set breeze,  for  which  this  climate  is  lemarkable,  I  observed  a 
stranger  in  the  circle.  1  was  told  it  was  the  father  of  Salo- 
ma  ;  and  therefore  did  not  think  it  remarkable  that,  while 
her  husband  Manuel  went  to  the  river  with  the  horses,  they 


84  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

drew  apart,  and  engaged  in  confidential  and  whispered  con 
versation.  They  stood  close  to  the  reed  basket-work  of  my 
cottage,  and  I  retired  from  that  side,  not  to  play  the  listener 
to  family  secrets.  In  the  morning,  Manuel  asked  for  some 
money  in  advance ;  and,  although  it  is  not  wise  to  indulge 
these  untaught  and  unreflecting  children  in  embarrassing 
themselves,  there  was  such  pressing  need  of  apparel,  that  in 
part  he  obtained  his  wish.  Saloma  was  full  of  glee,  and 
eager  to  set  out  for  the  camp  above,  to  obtain,  as  we 
thought,  musnu  from  the  suttler's  store,  for  a  new  dress.  I 
little  dreamed  that  her  impatience  was  to  obtain  the  price  of 
her  husband's  blood.  Some  of  our  people,  suspicious,  by 
bitter  experience,  of  the  temptations  and  facilities  to  this  kind 
of  domestic  treason,  had  watched  and  overheard  enough  to 
believe  that  the  errand  of  Saloma's  father  was  to  inveigle 
Manuel  back  to  bondage.  Saloma  engaged  to  lure  him  from 
the  precincts  of  our  place — for  there  a  kidnapper  dared  not 
come — and  deliver  him  into  the  hands  of  his  master  some- 
where about  Fort  Duncan.  I  could  not  credit  the  astound- 
ing tale,  or  be  made  to  believe  that  enslavement  for  debt 
would  be  upheld  by  force  on  our  soil.  The  afternoon  brought 
us  the  whole  story,  but  it  was  too  late  for  help  or  redress. 

Manuel  went  with  some  misgivings,  but  they  were  lulled 
to  sleep  by  the  endearments  of  his  Delilah.  After  they  had 
made  their  purchases,  she  contrived  to  separate  from  him 
while  he  continued  up  the  highway  towards  the  warehouse 
of  his  employer.  Nearly  in  front  of  it  he  was  beset  by  the 
kidnapper  in  wait  for  him,  but,  for  a  moment,  he  shook  him- 
self clear,  and  took  refuge  in  a  house  near  by  in  which  he  had 
a  right  to  expect  safety.  He  was  driven  forth  to  meet  the 
presented  pistol  of  the  pursuer,  who  was  now  reinforced  by 
an  American  gentleman.  Defence  was  now  impossible  ;  his 
hands  were  bound,  and  he  was  led  to  the  ferry  and  speedily 


Tnrl  FALSE  WIi  ga 

crossed  over  to  the  Mexican  side,  and  then  lodged  in  prison. 
What  became  of  his  false-hearted  Baloma  I  know  not,  bul  the 

nexj   day  Manuel  was    bound  on  a  horse  and  conveyed  to  the 

chains  and  whipping-poet  of  San  Juan, 

All  the  most  respectable  inhabitants  of  Eagle  Pass  united 
in  laying  this  case  in  particular  before  the  Secretary  of  State.. 
rase  it  was  bo  open  and  public,  and  because  it  embodied 
facts  and  precedents  on  which  it  was  imperative  for  the  well- 
being  of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  border  to  have  some  de- 
finite understanding  with  the  Mexican  Government.  It  was 
hardly  possible  that  any  American  Secretary  of  State  would 
fail  to  demand  back  the  victims  thus  wrenched  by  force  from 
the  shelter  of  our  flag,  much  less  that  he  would  allow  such  a 

ctice  to  stand  unrebuked — and  even  sustained — in  its  in- 
sulting violations  of  our  national  soil  and  sovereignty.  The 
meanest  power  in  Christendom  would  not  endure  such  an 
outrage  without  protest ;  and  he  who  could  write  Buch  an 
elaborate  letter  to  Hulsemann  for  his  own  honor,  could  hardly 
do  less  than  bestow  an  hour  on  a  question  that  touched  to  the 
core  the  honor  of  the  republic.  Spain  had  invaded  our  soil  at 
New  Orleans,  and  bore  off  Rey,  and  the  outn  as  hushed  up 

and  overlooked  in  a  most  ignominious  manner.  She  had 
seized  the  letter-bags  of  our  ships  in  the  ports  of  Cuba,  and 
we  resolutely  shut  our  eyes,  we  even  recalled  the  able  and 
patriotic  consul,  General  Campbell,  in  the  fear  that  he  would 
be  moro  strenuous  than  civil  in  defending  our  flag  and  ciii- 
zens  from  outrage.  Austria  had  offered  US  a  deep  insult  at 
Mantinople,  but  as  it  made  no  text  for  eloquent  declamation 
— it  was  borne  in  silence,  and  buried  forever  in  the  Dead  5 
of  the  State  Department.  i"et,  with  all  these  omissions  of 
duty  before  our  •  <  9,  we,  credulous  borderers,  were  actually 
sanguine  enough  to  believe  that  our  Cabinet  would  have  the 
courage  to  protect  the  inhabitants  of  the  frontier  from  actual 


56  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

invasion  by  these  lawless  Mexicans.     Thus  far  we  had  seen  no 
example  of  this  hoped-for  border  protection,  and   some  said 
even  then  that  the  Government  which  permitted  our  citizens  to 
be  plundered  and  maltreated,  as  they  had  been  at  Tehuantepec 
and  other  parts  of  Mexico,  would  take  it  very  lightly  if  the 
Mexicans  came  a  step  farther,  and  carried  us  off  of  our  own 
soil  to  deal  out  their  pleasure  on  us  in  Mexico.     However, 
the  memorial  went  on  to  Washington,  and  after  a  time  there 
came  this  very  luminous  and  logical  reply  from  the  Depart- 
ment of  State.     If  it  emanated  from  a  less  renowned  head 
than  that  of  the  "foremost  lawyer  of  the  age,"  one  might 
venture  to  say  that  it  is  as  weak  in  its  legal  positions  as  it  is 
imbecile  in  its  patriotism  and  false  in  its  statesmanship.     I 
have  put  in  italics  the  closing  sentence  ;  but  aside  from  this, 
here  is  an  exact  copy  of  this  extraordinary 

CABINET  LETTER. 

"  Department  of  State,  Washington,  ) 
17th  December,  1850.      j 

"  Sir — I  have  to  acknowledge  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of 
the  30th  ultimo,  with  the  accompanying  papers  relative  to 
the  abduction  of  Manuel  Rios,  from  Eagle  Pass,  in  Texas,  in 
September  last,  by  Dennis  Meade,  of  Piedras  Negras,  in  Mex- 
ico, who  claimed  the  services  of  Rios,  as  a  Peon,  under  the 
law  of  the  Mexican  Republic. 

"  As  it  does  not  appear  that  any  officer  of  that  Republic 
was  concerned  in  the  abduction,  the  case  is  not  one  which 
would  warrant  an  application  to  the  Mexican  Government. 
If,  however,  Mr.  Meade  should  have  violated  any  law  of  the 
State  of  Texas,  the  authorities  of  that  State  can  cause  him  to 
be  prosecuted  therefor  whenever  he  may  be  found  within 
their  jurisdiction.    If  also  Rios  should  assert  that  he  is  wrong- 


VBINBT  LETTER  87 

fully  fa  /'I  in  bondage  in  M>  zico,  he  mutt  male  good  Ids  claims 
to  freedom,  before  tlu  >l  tribunals  of  Mexico. 

"Your  obedient  servant, 

" Dakjii.  Webster." 

It  -would  be  a  salutary  hint  to  some  of  our  public  servants 
to  hear  how  their  short-comings  in  law  and  patriotism  are 
discussed  by  our  straightforward,  phiin-spoken  men  of  the 
frontier.  They  care  not  a  pin  for  high  names  ;  if  they  do  not 
see  common  sense  and  manly  truth  in  it,  they  will  l<  king 

ss  without  trying  the  ring  of  the  metal.     They  yield 
Caesar,  frankly  and  generously,  what  is  due  to  Caesar,  but 
they  must  believe  it  is  due  before  they  grant  their  tribute. 

Mr.  Webster's  letter  was  read  to  a  little  knot  of  these 
sturdy  reasoners,  and  each  characteristic  comment  had  a 
voter's  weight : 

u  To  say  that  it  does  not  warrant  an  application  to  Mexico, 
when  a  resident  on  our  soil  is  kidnapped,"  exclaimed  one  ; 
u  Mr.  Webster  never  said  that;  he  can't  take  such  a  position, 
it  would  leave  every  man  and  woman  on  the  border  at  the 
mercy  of  the  Mexicans." 

"It  is  so  set  down,"  said  the  recipient  of  the  letter,  show- 
ing the  signature  and  official  seal  of  the  Secretary  of  Stat 

"  Nothing  but  my  own  eyes  could  have  convinced  me  thnt 
Buch  a  paper  could  come  from  this  administration,"  was  the 
slow  response. 

"  We  need  not  send  to  Washington  to  learn  that  the  81 
horitiea  can  punish  an  infraction  of  their  State  laws,"  ob- 
served one  of  the  memorialists. —  "What  we  asked  of  the 
wisdom  of  the  Cabinet,  was  the  redress  of  a  wrong  done  t<» 
tic  nation,  and  in  the  case  when  tie'  offence  and  the  victim 
had  ond  State  jurisdiction." 


88  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

'*  You  liave  the  answer,  here :  the  crime  against  our  flag 
and  laws  goes  for  nothing,  and  if  kidnapped  people  don't  like 
slavery  they  must  '  make  good  their  claims  to  freedom  before 
the  tribunals  of  Mexico.'  " 

"  But,  Sir,  suppose  the  kidnapped  man  were  an  American 
citizen — one  of  us  here  present?"  persisted  the  profane 
doubter  of  Washington  infallibility. 

"  The  principle  here  set  forth  is  the  same,"  was  the  re- 
ply. "Tjiere  is  no  hint  of  security  or  redress  in  any  case 
where  the  kidnapper  is  not  an  officer  of  the  Mexican  govern- 
ment." 

"  Then  you  mean  to  say  that  any  body  else  can  come  here 
and  seize  people  to  make  peons  of  them  in  Mexico  whenever 
they  please,"  repeated  the  unsatisfied  querist. 

"  I  repeat  that  such  is  the  tenor  of  this  official  document," 
replied  the  proprietor  thereof. 

"  If  there  is  no  help  against  Mexicans  coming  here  to  steal 
men,  there  can  be  no  way  to  prevent  our  following  up  and 
shooting  the  stealers  on  the  Mexican  side,"  put  in  an  old 
borderer,  who,  upon  the  whole,  liked  this  independent,  self- 
reiving  view  of  the  case. 

"  Well,"  said  the  first  speaker,  after  a  long  pause,  '"Well, 
[  thought  this  administration  more  patriotic," — another  pause 
— "  and  this  Cabinet  more  politic," — another  pause — "  and 
Mr.  Webster  a  sounder  lawyer," — and  then  a  longer  and  sad- 
der pause — for  he  had  always  been  an  enthusiastic  "  Webster 


man." 


"As  to  administrations,  they  are  pretty  much  alike  in  these 
omissions,"  said  his  friend  ;  "  and  as  to  the  legal  soundness 
and  patriotism  of  the  thing,  they  never  expected  to  hear  of  it 
again  from  this  remote  border,  and  that  makes  an  immense 
difference;  but,  honestly.,  now,  would  this  affair  change  your 


CABINET  i  81) 

•  in  any  d         .  if  the  man  you  now  condemn  were  Domi- 
nated for  the  Pn  Bidency  by  your  part)  i 

1     ndidly,  then,  I  Bhould  all  the  Bame  feel  h-und  to  sup- 
port  the  nominees  of  my  party,"  was  the  frank  reply. 

So  faded  and  effete  lias  become  the  preserving  >alt  of  re- 
publican virtue,  that  sensible  men,  of  good  repute,  make  no 
Bcruple  to  avow  that  party  over-rides  principle  and  country. 
"1  mast  support  the  candidate  of  my  party." 
What  an  abyai  of  mire  and  corruption;  what  a  sinking 
depth  of  moral  decadence  ;  what  a  departure  from  the  lofty 
spirit  of  '78  there  is  in  that  perverse  cry!  It  loads  the  air, 
it  taints  the  moral  health  of  the  nation,  and  mal  iy  re- 

turning election  day  more  vilely  opposite  to  what  it   should 
be,  a  jubilee  of  sacred  dut« 

"  We  will  support  our  party,  even  in  its  wrong-d< 
"We  will  elect  our  mm,  by  whatever  means  we  may." 
"  We  will  dhide  the  spoils,  though  the  Union  dies  under 
the  knife." 

These  are  the  reigning  laws  of  party  in  these  latter  days  ; 
and  if  on  these  rocks  we  are  not  wrecked,  our  national  great- 
n<-.>s  may  outlive  the  stars,  for  if  not  in  them,  there  exists  no 
danger  for  our  republic. 

\\\  dismissing  this  subject — for  the  time  at  leasl  —  I  will  only 
add  that  on  the  receipt  of  this  singular,  and.  to  most,  une: 

led,  refusal   to  guard  our  soil  from  invasion  and  our  i 
dents  from  enslavement  in  Mexico,  an  appeal  was   had  to  the 

tte.     On  the  call  of  that  body  for  informa- 
tion, February  26th,  1851,  the  8<  ry  of  Stal 

■  letter,  and   presented  such  an  incom:  ount 

he  affair  as  laid  the  i  p.     If  Mr.  Webster  \ 

ancetob  I  into  debt — which, 

however,  is  scarcely  supposable — how  painful  it  would  be  to  his 
legion  of  admin  his  rules  applied  to  himself;  how 


90  ZIFS  02T  THE  BORDER. 

afflicting  to  see  the  most  illustrious  son  of  New  England  rated 
on  the  serf-roll  at  five  dollars  a  month,  and  condemned  to 
live  on  a  peck  and  a  half  of  corn  a  week ! 


BA P  TI&  TE  THE  B ORDERER. 

The  first  family  that  raised  a  roof-tree  and  gathered  round 
a  hearth-stone  in  Eagle  Pass,  after  the  proprietors,  was  such 
an  one  as  can  only  be  found  in  our  American  frontier  settle- 
mem-.  Our  invaluable  Baptiste  and  his  family  are  born 
children  of  the  border.  They  could  not  find  contentment 
and  house-room  if  a  clear,  untroubled  space  of  forty  or  fifty 
miles  of  wilderness  did  not  lay  behind  them,  for  air  and  ex- 
erci  There  is  only  this  difference  of  taste  between  hus- 

band and  wife,  and  that  is  almost  universal  in  genuine  fron- 
tiersmen. The  man  looks  back  with  an  ever-longing  eve  to 
the  wild  freedom  of  the  receding  forest;  the  woman,  and 
mother,  turns  hers  eagerly  forward  to  meet  the  coming  civil- 
ization, and  thinks  hopefully  of  the  day  in  which  she  shall  be 
able  to  dre.-s  and  school  her  children,  '-as  they  do  in  the 
settlements."  Baptiste  carries  with  him  my  heartiest  sym- 
pathies, when  I  see  how  kindly  and  bravely  he  rules  down 
his  strong  naturaj  impulses,  and  strives  and  toils,  and  builds 
and  plants,  with  affectionate  docility,  to  gratify  his  wife  with 
a  regular  home,  and  to  gather  around  her  the  household 
wealth  of  a  thrifty  farmer.  His  honest,  weather-beaten  I 
beams  all  over  with  proud  satisfaction  when  his  wife  and 
children  are  dressed  to  their  taste  in  fine  and  fashionable  ap- 
parel, although,  for  himself,  he  would  not  give  his  fox-skin 
hunting-pouch  for  all  the  contents  of  all  the  tailors'  shops  in  the 
Union.  So,  too,  of  churches  and  schools;  he  is  ready  to  ad- 
mit they  are  excellent  things  for  the  children,  since  his  wife 


BAP77E  R.  01 

saj  s  so,  but  can'l  conceive  h<  w  Buch  tl  Quid  be  of  any 

use  to  him.  without  a  rough-hewed  idea 

of  religion,  or  rather  of  superstition,  which  is  a  kind  of  L< 
handed  religion,  since  it  rests  upon  a  reverential  ■  of 

at  Cause,  al  md  indepi  ndent  of  human  s 

sufficiency.     He  offers,  in  his  own  crude  way,  his  in  of 

prayer  and  thanksgiving  to  the  Eternal  Father,  and  culd  not 
be  persuaded  that  any  other  mortal  could  teach  him  better 
than  he  k  imi   if,  how  his  helmsman  c         :nce  must 

way  to  the  narrow  gate  that  opens  into  the  other 
Id. 

He  reminds  us  in  ntly  of  Cooper's  inimitable  Lealh  r 
Stocking,  if  we  could  imagine  that  simple  and  sincere  woods- 
man falling  in  love  and  winning  the  heart  of  a  sprightly,  in- 
dustrious girl  of  mixed  blood,  whose  greatest  ambition  it  is 
to  live  in  the  settled  and  comfortable  independence  of  the 
white  women. 

Parthena — for  that,  in  true  border  taste  for  original  and 
h-sounding  words— is  the  classic  name  of  Baptiste's  wife, 
had  lived  awhile  in  the  precincts  of  a  Mexican  frontier  camp, 
and  her  impatient  desire  for  a  respectable  and  secure  home 
increased  by  the  absence  of  everything  like  it,  in  that 
sink  of  lawless  misrule.  She  wished  us  to  assign  them  a 
hi  mestead  within  ow  limits,  where  her  ad  poultry,  her 

bee-hives  and  dove-house,  her  cows  and  her  children,  could 
live  and  flourish  under  American  laws.     I  liked  her  hon 
ambition  and  straightforward  plans,  and  cordially 
her  all  the  aid  and        d  will   I  could  command.     Bapti 
whothinka  no  I         .  uinful  thatcontrib  i  his  wife's  hap- 

piness, chose   forthwith  the  site  for  his  habitation,  and   i 

•i.     lb-  threw  a  blanket  ever  a  '  tchins 

.     gainst  the  trunk,  hu 
hi-  shot-pouch  by  its  w'de-  that  hard  work 


92  LIFE  Oil  THE  BORDER. 

in  question — and  began,  single-banded,  to  construct  his  house. 
His  canoe  and  hatchet,  with  a  spade  and  pick-axe,  borrowed 
for  the  emergency,  was  all  lie  wanted,  and  almost  before  we 
had  thought  twice  about  it,  he  came  to  borrow  a  team  lo 
"bring  home  his  old  woman  and  his  plunder."  Our  kind- 
hearted  neighbor,  Mr.  Campbell,  turned  out  his  enormous 
wagon,  a  second  Noah's  ark,  on  wheels,  with  a  faithful  hand 
and  a  perfect  procession  of  the  magnificent  oxen  for  which 
Texas  is  famous.  Our  contribution  was  less  imposing,  but  it 
was  sufficient,  and  in  due  time  Parthena  was  installed  in  her 
own  house  by  her  exulting  husband. 

His  house,  the  work  of  his  own  hands,  is  worth  describing, 
both  as  a  model  for  self-helping  architects,  and  because  it  is 
like  Baptiste  himself,  a  curious  graft  of  civilization  on  the 
natural  stock. 


A  FRONTIER  DWELLING. 

Our  embryo  town  lies  on  a  sloping  prairie,  sprinkled  with 
mesquete  trees  like  a  vast  and  venerable  orchard,  and  falling 
in  successive  platforms  or  terraces  down  to  the  river's  edge. 
The  bank  nearest  to  the  water — and  only  divided  from  it  by 
a  narrow  strip  of  rich  interval,  scantily  dotted  with  young 
mulberry  trees — is  a  steep  bluff  of  ten  or  twelve  feet  in 
height ;  and  in  the  face  of  this  bluff  our  man  of  nature  has 
concealed  his  temporary  dwelling.  I  say  concealed,  for  there 
is  nowhere  around  it  a  sio-n  of  human  habitation  to  break  the 
smooth  expanse  of  the  platform,  until  you  wend  down  its  face 
and  actually  penetrate  the  little  hidden  ravine  that  opens 
into  his  door.  Then,  all  at  once  stands  revealed  a  spacious, 
lightsome  chamber,  scooped  out  of  the  hill-side.  The  front, 
looking  towards  the  liver,  and  on  the  intervening  garden- 
ground,  is  latticed  with   reeds,  and  cunningly  veiled  by  the 


j    FRONTIER  DWELLING. 

earth  and  herbage  of  the  bank,  but  is  still  pleasantly  pervioue 
to  the  cheering  breeze  and  fresh  light  of  this  genial  climate, 
other  three  Bides  are  cut  Bquare  and  even  from  the  solid 
earth,  which  is  here  a  favorable  admixture  ind  and  (day, 
and  requires  no  other  walls  or  Bupport.  On  these  rests  the 
roof.      Willow  and    sycamore  poles  of    sufficient  size  and 

ngth  Btretch  from  side  to  side;  and  closely  laid  on  these 
supporters  is  a  cross  carpet  of  reeds,  which  is  again  covered 
with  a  thick  layer  of  grass  and  earth.  A  carriage  might 
drive  over  this  sod-roof,  so  shly  Bpread,  even  with  the  gen- 
eral Burface,  without  suspecting  the  existence  of  a  dwelling 
beneath,  or  endangering  in  the  least  the  safety  of  it^  inmates. 
A  plaster  of  mud,  Blightly  tempered  with  lime — which  <my 
man  may  make  for  himself  in  this  limestone  region — gi 
whiteness  ami  finish  to  these  earth  walls,  and  the  quarries  of 

utifullv  stratified  sandstone  from  the  hills  that  back  the 
town  supplies  a  firm  and  durable  floor  for  the  trouble  of 
bringing  home  and  laying  down  the  natural  flags. 

DO  *         O  O 

All    this  is  Baptiste's   own  handiwork,  and  a  proud,  littl<- 
woman  is  his  busy,  saving  wife,  as  she   surveys  i<,  while  she 

itirs  herself  among  her  milk-pans  and  her  poultry.  For 
love  of  her,  this  wandering  hunter  gave  up  the  life  of  his 
choice  ;  for  her  sake  his  hands  resigned  the  gun  and  dag  this 
'  for  her  comfort;  he  explored  the  islands  for  his  reeds 
and  rafters  ;  for  her  Bake  Ik-  forgot  the  tempting  fish  in  the 
limpid  Escondida,  to  handle  the  axe  and  raft  over,  with  only 
the  lu-lp  of  his  light  canoe,  the  timber  for  his  simple  frame- 
work. 

The  millionaire,  who   gives  the   partner  of  his  wealth  the 
rflowings  of  his  golden  cup,  wherewith  to  make  ostenta- 
tion of  their  luxury,  cannot  make  Buch  a  heart-offering 
does  this  love-tamed  rover  of  the  wilds  when  he  thus   "  gives 
his  body  to  painful  toil  "  to  create  for  his  wife  comforts,  which 


94  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER." 

to  him,  personally,  are  absolutely  superfluous  and  of  no  value 

whatever. 

-    Yet,  with  wifely  tact,  Paithena  is  careful  not  to  interfere 

with  her  husband's  ways,  or  undervalue  bis  favorite  pursuits. 

He  bunts,  and  fisbes,  and  traces  up  tbe  wild  bee  at  discretion, 
and  bis  table  rarely  lacks  a  plentiful  supply  of  tbe  best  that 
tbe  field  and  river  can  furnish,  though  now  and  then,  per- 
haps, a  little  to  the  detriment  of  his  more  regular  pursuits. 
"We  come  in  largely  for  the  benefits  of  these  excursions,  in 
consequence  of  the  little  acts  of  kindness  we  were  enabled  to 
show  his  "  old  woman,"  who  by  the  way  must  be  decidedly 
on  the  bright  side  of  twenty-eight.  Scarcely  a  day  passes 
in  -vvhich  the  tall  form  of  Baptiste  does  not  loom  along,  and, 
without  more  ado,  deposit  in  the  cook's  hands  a  choice  wild 
turkey,  a  brace  of  ducks,  a  handful  of  pigeons,  partridges,  or 
some  other  offering  of  the  chase,  and  then  he  disappears,  as 
abruptly  as  he  came. 

Setting  aside  these  bribes  to  good-will,  this  obliging,  off- 
handed, independence  sets  so  well  upon  them,  and  is  bright- 
ened withal  by  such  a  willing,  self-helping  industry,  that  I 
am  never  tired  of  watching  the  busy,  cheerful  ways  of  tbe 
familv,  and  never  see  them  without  a  wish  that  the  millions 
of  working  men  who  have,  as  he  had  at  first,  no  capital  but 
their  own  strong  hands,  were  able,  like  him,  to  build  them- 
selves free  homes,  and  collect  around  them  the  elements  of 
independence,  and  so  rear  their  children  to  the  stature  of  free- 
men. 

S  O  CIA  L   JDIS  TINC  TIONS. 

Yet  I  ramble  from  the  main  subject.  Our  town  was  be- 
gan. It  held  a  commodious  double  tent,  with  the  first  settler 
and  proprietor,  Mr.  C,  and  his  lady,  that  was  the  aristocratic 
party.     Then  our  reed  shelter  and  its  twain.     We  were  tho 


80i  M.  D18TINCTI0  \  5  Bfi 

rutic  middle  .  and  close  npon  us  was  tlio.  thatched 
shed  of  Don  Guillermo  the  mason,  in  blood,  bone  and  sinew, 
pure  Indian;  he  c  nttituted  the  radical  native  American 
party.     Finally  there  was  a  ?»coiv  of  mm  quarrying  out  stone 

:  making  adobes ;  ol  these  were  free-born  toilers, 

working-c  about    which  all   men  talk   brotherhood  and 

philanthropy,  but  to  whom  few  give  the  warm  right  hand  in 
cordial  fellowship  with  a  hearty  "  Lei  us  work  together,  my 
brothi  r."  Below  this  is  still  another  rank,  enduring  all  the 
ills  and  blight  of  Blavery,  but  with  none  to  sorrow,  none  to 
pray  with  them,  for  there  is  no  political  capital,  no  religious 
fame  to  be  made  out  of  the  Mexican  peon. 

Jf  he  lived  in  the  almost  impenetrable  heart  of  Asia,  and 
the  trumpet  of  benevolence  could  come  sounding  over  the 
ocean  billows,  bless  me,  how  busy  would  be  our  missionary 
l"re  !  If  he  spoke  an  impracticable  tongue,  how  we  would 
Bend  him  tracts!  but  who  ever  did,  how  can  any  one  get  up 
a  high-sfc  .mi  pressure  of  enthusiasm  for  the  misery  and  dark- 
ness that  lies  down  and  dies  at  our  door-step?  The  thing  is 
jterous.  When  we  live  among  it,  even  African  servi- 
tude excites  no  sympathy,  that  is,  none  of  that  generous  over- 
boiling sympathy  that  unlocks  our  purses  and  disposes  us  to 
burn  the  houses  over  the  heads  of  cold-blooded,  unfeeling 
owners.  Distance  lends  enthusiasm  as  well  as  enchantment 
to  the  view,  and  against  the  crowds  who  devote  their  lives  to 
the  Malays  and  Hottentots, we  have  hardly  a  Fry  or  a  How- 
ard to  do  as  much  for  our  domestic  heathen. 

In  our  Mexican  family,  now  that  they  were  in  such  close 
vicinity,  I  could  trace  the  destructive  course  of  peoi  age,  and 
was  d,  against  many  prejudices,  t ■  •  see  that  it  was  more 

deadly  and  blighting  than  African  slavery.  Laving  aside 
specialities  and  .1  pleading,  peonage  has  dragged  down 

ten  or  twelve  millions  of  Indians  on  this  continent  to  half  their 


06  UFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

number  and  to  a  most  abased  and  hopeless  condition.  Afri- 
can slavery  snatched  some  hundred  thousand  slaves  from  a 
land  of  gross  and  cruel  slavery,  and  raised  them  and  their 
descendants  to  a  Christian  and  moral  elevation  incomparably 
superior  to  any  condition  we  know  of  the  race  in  their  native 
land.  I  do  not  say  we  should  continue  a  wrong  that  good 
may  come  of  it.  I  do  not  say  we  should,  and  I  know  in  this 
age  we  cannot,  keep  alive  the  slave-trade,  or  unduly  retard 
the  liberation  of  the  bondman ;  but  whoever  will  look  at  it 
calmly,  will  say  that  the  broadest  and  deepest  of  American 
sins  is  the  enslavement,  degradation  and  slaughter  of  the  Red 
Race. 

SLAVERY  EXTENSION. 

Here,  then,  was  the  first  blow  struck  towards  the  creation 
of  the  toivn  of  Eap-le  Pass.  The  name  existed  before,  a  sim- 
pie  translation  of  the  term  "  Paso  de  Aguila,"  the  "Eagle 
Ford,"  or  Pass,  by  which  this  crossing  was  known  to  the 
Mexican  traders  and  soldiers.  Here  a  part  of  those  who 
came  to  re- conquer  Texas  from  the  Texans  swept  across  the 
Bravo.  Here,  when  Mexico  was  in  turn  invaded  by  the 
Americans,  Captain  Veach  had  his  encampment,  and  recorded 
its  name  in  his  dispatches  to  Washington.  It  shows  how  very 
willing  this  section  of  Mexico  was  to  be  conquered  ;  in  that 
Captain  Veach  kept  a  population  of  more  thousands  than  he 
had  tens,  of  armed  men  in  quiet  order  during  the  fiercest 
portion  of  the  war.  The  first  clamor  of  discontent  broke  out 
in  the  towns  of  this  district  of  Mexico,  when  it  was  under- 
stood they  were  to  have  back  their  own  soldier  despots.  The 
peon  holders  were  the  least  willing  to  be  Americanized,  be- 
cause they  also  own  all  the  land,  are  not  taxed  either  for  land 
or  slaves,  and  are  themselves  co-partners  in  the  government 


SLA  VERY  EXTENSION.  97 

with  the  soldier  chieftains.  The  actual  tillers  of  the  soil, 
Ihe  tenders  of  the  herds  those  whose  labor  extracts  from  the 
earth  what  wealth  Mexico  produces,  would  have  gained  free- 
dom, hope,  education  and  religious  light  under  our  laws,  and 
so  far  as  they  knew,  or  cared  anything  about  it,  desired  the 
change.  With  wlvt  glossy  rhetoric, bat  most  absurd  states- 
manship did  members  of  Congress  declaim,  day  after  day, 
until  the  very  columns  of  the  legislative  halls  must  have  ached 
with  their  stupidity,  on  the  danger  of  "  extending  slavery  " 
by  taking  in  Mexican  territory  !  Every  town  so  received  was 
an  orphan  caught  up  from  the  desert  of  sin  and  servitude, 
and  folded  to  the  cherishing  bosom  of  light  and  liberty. 
Where  the  African  slaves  were  to  come  from  to  extend  sla- 
very I  never  could  learn,  for  none  are  brought  to  us  from 
other  countries,  and  those  who  merely  change  their  residence 
from  one  section  to  the  other  leave  room  behind  them  for 
free  labor  to  step  in  and  reign.  Slavery  may  roll  away  more 
and  more  to  the  South  and  prepare  the  way  for  white  indus- 
try, as  it  has  been  doing  from  U13  first  days  of  the  republic, 
but  this  "  extension "  cry  is  a  chimera,  a  fiction  of  party 
pleading,  and  in  twenty  years  men  will  wonder  at  those  who 
believed  in  it,  as  we  of  to-day  wonder  at  witchcraft,  epidem- 
ics, and  religious  wars.  As  African  slavery  recedes  south- 
ward and  breaks  into  new  fields,  waiting  to  be  subdued  to 
civilization,  it  leaves  at  the  North,  State  after  State,  emanci- 
pated ground,  and  always  on  it  an  offering  of  freedmen.  Sla- 
very has  had  its  mission,  and  when  the  work  is  done,  and  the 
lesson  taught,  it  will  expire  by  its  inherent  terms  of  limita- 
tion. 


98  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 


A  CHARACTER. 

The  very  day  I  came  to  take  possession  of  my  cane  cot- 
tage I  unearthed  a  new  and  valuable  inhabitant  of  our  citv — 
of  the  future.     I  mined  out  an  excellent  carpenter  and  a  use- 
ful  neighbor  from  the  heart  of  a  small  mountain  of  lumber, 
in  which  he  had  interred  himself  with  his  box  of  tools,  work- 
bench and  kitchen  assortment.     I  have  pondered   long  and 
thoughtfully  upon  it,  but  to  this  day  I    cannot   make  out 
whether  he  contrived  his  own  path  to  the  centre,  or  whether 
those  huge  piles  of  boards  and  beams  closed  up  spontaneous- 
ly around  him.      He  was  an  eccentric   genius,  from   North 
Carolina  I  think,  not  at  all  afraid  of  hard  work  or  rough  fare, 
and  well  skilled  to  improve  his  wild  and  independent  house- 
keeping by  fishing  and  hunting,  but  stoutly  resolved  not  to 
know   anything,  or  approve  anything,  about  the  Mexicans. 
It  was  his  daily  comfort  to  lecture  them  upon  their  carele=s, 
unskilful  ways,  and  it  did  not  seem  to  abate  a  panicle  of  the 
unction  that  none  of  them  understood  a  word  he  said.    They 
would  stand  still  and  listen  with  an  air  of  grave  and  respect- 
ful attention  to  the  end,  and  when  he  clinched  his  rebuke 
with  his  regular  closing  question  : — 

"Now,  don't  you  think  you  are  tho  most  trifling,  good-for- 
nothing  beings  that  were  ever  seen  upon  the  earth  since  it  was 
created  ?" 

They  would  as  regularly  reply  to  what  they  could  observe 
was  an  emphatic  interrogatory,  and  but  polite  to  answer  in 
the  affirmative,  with  a  cordial — 

"Si,  Senor." 

After  this  refreshment  Harris  would  return  to  his  saw  and 
plane,  a  relieved  man  for  the  day.  It  was  not  his  fault  if 
the  Mexicans  did  not  know  their  deficiencies. 


.i  i  ./.!/,•  !■  ;.■ 

By  way  of  parenthesis  in  his  contract  for  a  warehouse  and 
ferry  scow,  he  built  a  light  skill'  for  Don  Juan  Fernandez, 
mHo  lived  io  an  island  of  live  oaks  on  the  rolling  prairie,  aim 
as  solitary  and  Belf-sufficing  as  bis  famous  namesake  did  on 
bis  island  of  tbe  ocean.  A  fertile,  well-watered,  and  emi- 
:  ''\  bi  autiful  and  healthy  stretch  of  country,  equal  in  i  - 
tent  to  the  State  of  Delaware,  and  no  whit  behind  it  in  tl  e 
value  of  its  natural  resources,  is  owned  by  the  Fernandez  kith 
and  kin,  but  all  this  immense  sweep  of  splendid  land  is  unoccu- 
pied by  its  proprietors.  With  the  exception  of  Don  Juan, 
who  now  lias  come  over  to  Eagle  Pass  with  about  three  bun- 
dred  of  his  cattle,  there  are  none  of  the  owners  who  bring  their 
families  even  temporarily  to  live  on  their  ranchos.  Nothing 
but  peons  and  cattle,  with  a  slight  occasional  sprinkle  of  In- 
dian visitors,  have  homes  in  this  tempting  range.  No  Mexican 
I  ever  met  has  even  an  idea  of  what  English  and  Americans 
mean  by  a  country  life. 

We  found  our  boats  delightful  auxiliaries,  for  we  followed 
Don  Juan's  example,  and  supplied  ourselves  with  the  means 
of  enjoying  the  water,  and  we  visited  in  them  many  a  CO 
little  nook  for  a  gypsey  dinner,  that  we  never  would  have 
found  by  a  land  path. 

The  first  trip  was  to  the  Bathing  Rapids  on  the  Escondida. 
For  half  a  mile  the  stream  shoots  alone;  between  its  walls  of 
verdure  in  a  clear  and  steady  volume,  but  at  that  distance  we 
came  upon  the  dancing,  singing,  rejoicing  rapids,  that  rush 
laughingly  over  the  rocky  bed,  water-hollowed  into  innu- 
merable natural  baths.  In  these  cradles  the  idle  or  timid 
bather  may  recline  at  careless  length,  and  the  caressing  tide 
will  lift  him  in  its  cool  embrace,  and  enfold  and  lave  his  in- 
dolent limbs  in  its  watery  delights  without  the  cost  of  an 
effort,  There  is  not  such  another  limpid,  refreshing  consola- 
tion and  cure  for  indolence  within  a  hundred  miles.     The 


100  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

two  miles  that  Fort  Duncan  is  above  the  pure  current  of  the 
Escondida,  places  it  just  that  distance  above  its  proper  loca- 
tion, not  less  on  account  of  the  health  and  comfort  of  its  gar- 
rison than  in  the  military  view  of  its  also  being  that  far  re- 
moved from  the  point  commanding  the  best  fords  and  inlets 
to  the  Mexican  trade  and  settlements. 

It  is  a  singular  dispensation  of  nature  that  for  scores  of 
miles  the  Mexican  bank  of  the  Bravo  is  enriched  with  a  con- 
tinual succession  of  ever-living  springs — '  ojos  de  agua"  or, 
"  water  eves,"  as  the  Mexicans  call  them,  while  on  the 
American  side  opposite,  no  one  has  been  found.  The  want 
of  frequent  and  permanent  water-courses  is  felt  on  our  side 
of  the  Bravo,  from  Santa  Fe  to  the  Gulf,  as  a  great  draw- 
back to  rapid  and  extended  settlements. 

WELLS. 

Speaking  of  water  supply,  I  would  remind  those  who  are 
opening  farms  that  in  this  climate,  where,  with  water,  crops 
are  so  varied,  so  certain,  and  so  abundant,  and  land  withal  so 
cheap,  wells  and  means  of  irrigation  should  be  counted  as 
a  part  of  their  capital  investment,  for  no  part  of  it  would 
so  securely  return  them  a  high  interest.  A  farm  of  a  mile 
square,  with  more  or  less  water  front,  can  be  purchased,  to- 
gether with  a  pair  of  working  oxen  and  half  a  dozen  milk 
cows,  for  a  thousand  dollars.  Another  two  hundred  dollars — 
to  take  sure  margin,  say  five  hundred — will,  by  the  various 
improvements  lately  made  in  water-raising  machinery,  insure 
irrigation  to  gardens  and  orchards  that  will  give  back  annual- 
ly and  certainly  thirty  or  forty  per  cent,  on  this  whole  invest- 
ment. There  is  no  space  here  for  long  sums  in  arithmetic, 
but  the  whole  history  of  agriculture  where  irrigation  i§  prac- 
tised, establishes  the  fact.      The  same  outlay  in   land,  the 


MELON  8UGAR  101 

same   labor   in   cultivating-  it,  will,  under  tills  sky  of  almost 
Bunshine,  ensure  double  crops  to  the  farmer.     If, 
therefore,  his  works  for  the  supply  of   water  do  perch;, 
cost  half  as  much  as  his  land,  they  will  still  remain  that  p 

i  of  his  invested  capital  which  returns  to  him  the  largest 
and  surest  inter* 

Wind-mill  wells  can  certainly  be  erected  to  good  account 
any  where  in  the  long-extended  valley  of  the  Rio  Bravo. 
The  breeze  is  strong  and  constant  from  the  sea  most  part  of 
the  year,  and  the  nature  of  the  country  argues  extensive  sub- 
strata of  water.  It  is  found  at  about  thirty  feet  below  the 
surface  at  Fort  Duncan,  but  how  far  the  amount  would  sup- 
ply irrigation  has  never  been  tried.  Americans  are  hardly 
aware  that  the  richest  and  most  productive  countries  of  an- 
cient civilization  depended  almost  wholly  upon  artificial  power 
for  water,  but  that  with  it  their  two  or  three  crops  a  year 
made  them  marvels  of  wealth  and  fertility. 

Embankments,  and  machinery  for  making  the  rapids  and 
even  the  high  annual  freshets  available  for  irrigation,  can  bo 
applied  with  great  economy  and  effect  at  Eagle  Pass  and  a 
hundred  other  points  on  the  Bravo,  and  some  day  the  ri^ht 
man  will  come  to  confer  on  us  this  one  thing  needful,  and  en- 
sure himself  the  while  a  splendid  fortune. 


MELON  SUGAR. 

There  are  certain  valuable  productions  for  which  this  val- 
ley is  peculiarly  adapted,  and  which  are  in  all  times  unfailing 
staples  of  national  wealth.  Among  them  will  be  sugar,  and 
wines  of  g  is  quality.     At  the  World's  Fair  will  be  seen 

the  first  feeble  offerings  of  the  experimental  vint  g  of  the 
Union,  but  it  is  not  probable  the  L<>ne  Star  will  be  ther 

80,  too,  I  look  in  vain  for  a  display  of  sugars,  and  our  in- 


102  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

fant  sugar  interest  is  no  contemptible  feature  in  our  domestic 
trade  and  home  consumption.  There  are  several  varieties  of 
sugar  besides  that  extracted  from  the  cane,  which  can  be  pro- 
fitably manufactured  in  the  United  States,  if  from  war  or  any 
cause  it  is  desirable  to  be  independent  of  other  nations  for 
that  article  of  daily,  abundant  and  universal  use  among  the 
Americans. 

Of  these  ranks  first,  the  delicious  sugar  of  the  maple, 
whose  healthy  and  delicate  sweets  are  almost  unknown  in 
Europe. 

Then  comes  pumpkin  sugar,  as  simple  and  economical,  or 
rather  more  so,  than  the  beet  sugar,  which  France  is  finding 
so  available  in  her  domestic  industry.  Then  we  have  beet 
sugar,  and  corn-stalk  sugar,  like  the  last,  only  to  be  made 
profitable  on  a  large  scale  and  with  adequate  machinery. 
There  are  localities  in  the  Northern  States  in  which  the  soil, 
amplitude  of  intelligence  and  corps  of  fit  laborers  would  make 
the  culture  of  the  pumpkin  sugar  desirable.  The  North 
American  Phalanx — to  whom  all  prosperity — have  the  soil 
and  the  men  to  make  it  a  profitable  branch  of  their  system. 
I  trust  when  the  next  World's  Fair  is  mustered  under  United 
States  auspices,  (and  to  do  it  well,  the  American  Institute 
has  but  to  take  it  in  hand  and  make  Mr.  Barnum  one  of 
their  managers,)  that  we  shall  have  a  fine  collection  of  spe- 
cimen sugars.  Three  kinds  I  have  named,  besides  the  luscious 
maple  and  the  well-known  cane  sugars,  but  there  is  a  sixth 
kind  sleeping  in  darkness,  that  only  waits  a  kindly  introduc- 
tion to  become  of  great  importance  to  us  on  this  border  river, 
and  to  the  Union,  and  that  is  melon  sugar.  There  is  no  limit 
to  the  quantities  the  Rio  Grande  country  is  capable  of  pro- 
ducing, and  an  acre  of  melons  will  yield  as  many  gallons  of 
syrup,  and  of  course  we  may  presume  sugar  also,  as  the  aver- 
age yield  of  the  cane  fields  of  Louisiana.     The  apparatus  for 


MELON  SUGAR.  103 

crashing  melons  is  simpler  and  cheaper  than  for  the  cane 
mills,  as  a  common  cider  press,  propelled  by  mule  or  ho 

power,  will  make  five  hundred  barrels  of  the  melon  jui 
which  will  yield  five  thousand  pounds  of  sugar,  in  a  month. 
The  BUgar  is  sweet  liner  in  llavor  and  color  than  the  MexU 
can  cane  sugar,  and  will  command  here  ten  cents  a  pound  io 
the  p:oducer.  I  do  nut  know  (it  remains  to  be  tiied)  how 
many  hands  would  be  necessary  to  boil  and  finish  oil'  the 
sugar  with  the  necessary  apparatus,  but  it  may  be  observed 
that  Mexican  laborers  can  be  hired  and  rationed  at  less  cost 
than  plantation  slaves  can  be  maintained,  if  to  the  interest  on 
the  purchase  price  of  the  slaves  we  add  the  cost  of  their  re- 
gular food  and  clothing.  On  the  Mexican  side  of  the  river 
five  dollars  a  month,  and  an  allowance  of  a  peck  and  a  half  of 

a  a  week  for  food,  is  a  fair  rate.  We  have  always  paid 
more  than  twice  that  for  our  permanent  servants,  but  of  late  w  i 
have  repeated  proffers  of  good  shepherds  and  field  hands  for 
six  and  seven  dollars  a  month,  with  the  addition  of  meat  and 
coffee  rations,  which  the  Americans  have  made  the  custom, 
and  therefore  a  social  law  at  Eagle  Pass. 

Our  whole-hearted  border  man  Baptiste  has  made  the  trial 
of  the  watermelon  syrup  in  comparison  with  the  cane  juice, 
and  the  result  satisfies  me  that  melon  sugar  can  be  made  a 
regular  and  profitable  item  of  American  agriculture.  In  all 
that  wide  belt  of  Southern  States  in  which  cane  sugar  is  of 
doubtful  or  impossible  culture,  the  more  hardy  melon  can 
take  its  place.  There  are  immense  districts  in  Virginia  and 
North  Carolina  in  which  no  other  crop  can  be  raised  to  equal 
advantage.     The  watermelon  is  a  proved  experiment;  as  far 

its  saccharine  qualities  and   productiveness   are  the  ques- 

n,  but  I  am  waiting  in  mo-t   anxious  faith  for  the  trial  of 
th<«  muskmelon,  for  I  have  an  idea  that  it  will  be  the  best 

rar  producer  after  cane,  with  the  advantage  of  living  in  a 


104  LIFE  CX  THE  BOEDER. 


colder  clirnale  and  on  land  too  light  for  the  cane.  If  I  am 
right  in  this  opinion,  it  will  introduce  a  new  and  profitable 
culture  in  other  sections  than  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande. 


THE  BLUE  WATER. 


About  three  miles  from  us  on  the  Mexican  side  is  a  lovely 
tree-embowered  lakelet,  so  deep,  clear,  and  transparent,  that 
it  looks  like  a  little  piece  of  the  sky  dropped  down  under 
those  cool  shades,  and  for  this  it  is  called  Aguita  Azul,  or,  the 
Blue  Water.  Few  about  us  have  taken  the  interest  to  explore 
the  beauties  of  this  sylvan  waste,  and  are  therefore  ignorant  of 
the  fine  fishing  and  bathing  that  may  be  found  within  an 
hour's  easy  ride  from  our  ferry.  The  scenery,  the  primitive 
inhabitants,  and  the  wild,  out-door  repast  are  sufficient  for 
me,  and  the  like  thereof  no  city  can  proffer  to  my  taste.  Yet 
so  many  other  charming  places  tempted  me,  that  I  was  lono- 
in  reaching  the  crowning  enchantment  of  the  Blue  Water, 
but  the  while  it  grew  to  my  memory  by  some  indelible  way- 
side incidents  that  chanced  to  join  themselves  to  its  name. 

One  day  we  were  loitering  under  the  twisted  vines  that 
wove  together  the  branches  of  a  brace  of  sturdy  elms,  turn- 
ing over  some  curious  petrified  mosses  that  bordered  our 
chosen  spring,  and  discussing  with  our  biscuits  the  compa- 
rative merits  of  the  Blue  Pool  and  a  sister  lakelet  somewhat 
on  this  side  of  it,  when  a  handsome  boy  of  fourteen  or  fifteen 
glided  into  the  circle,  with  the  usual  soft,  noiseless  step  of 
an  Indian.  Unseen  by  us,  he  had  observed  us  busy  with 
the  petrified  grasses,  and  brought,  by  way  of  introduction, 
some  specimens  still  whiter  and  more  curious,  from  another 
spring.  We  accepted  and  admired  them,  and  gave  him  of 
our  refreshments,  but  he  still  lingered  near,  though  modestly 
silent  and  apart  from  our  conversation.     This  is  the  Mexican 


THE  BLUE  WATER.  105 

and  Indian  way  of  hinting  they  have  a  favor  to  ask  or 
something  to  communicate!  and  the  very  children  will  wait 

in  calm  patience  for  hours  to  be  questioned,  before  they  will 
obtrude  their  errand.  Our  winning  lad  was  soon  brought  to 
confession.  He  wanted  a  remtdio,  that  is,  a  cure  for  a 
sprained  wrist  He  never  changed  a  muscle  while  they  ex- 
amined w  hether  the  bone  was  displaced.  Happily  it  was  not, 
and  the  cold-water  remedy  was  ordered — as  it  proved — with 
eminent  success.  After  directing  our  impromptu  friend 
where  to  find  us  at  home,  to  get  bandages  and  some  other 
little  matters  which  we  thought  proper  to  prescribe  in  our 
medical  capacity,  we  exchanged  ceremonious  adios,  and  he 
returned  to  the  house  of  his  friend  Placida,  who  lived,  as  he 
said,  not  far  from  the  Blue  Water.  '*  Not  far,"  means  in 
Mexican  any  where  between  two  rods  and  two  leagues. 

A  Mexican  circa  (near  by)  is  a  dangerous  trust  for  a 
tired  traveller,  but  our  boy  was  not  more  than  a  mile  or  so 
at  random  that  time. 

The  next  week  he  came,  by  permission  of  his  master,  to 
thank  me  for  his  now  perfected  cure,  and  to  bring  me  a  pretty 
pair  of  chickens,  probably  the  whole  sum  of  his  earthly 
•wealth.  It  would  not  be  kind  to  refuse  a  (rift  which  he  had 
walked  some  miles  and  consumed  his  holiday  to  bring  me, 
and  besides,  as  I  glanced  at  his  scant  garments,  I  saw  a 
mode  of  honorable  restitution,  but  I  did  not  know  his  name, 
and  I  inquired  it. 

"Jesus  de  Dios  (Jesus  of  God,)  at  your  service,  Madama." 

"  Where  is  your  father  ?" 

"  I  have  none ;  he  is  dead,  but  mi  !io  Dios  (my  uncle  God) 
is  a  peon  on  the  poor  little  rancho  of  the  Holy  Ghost  (Espi- 
ritu  Santo),  near  Monclova." 

"  Then  you  do  not  like  the  rancho  your  uncle  lives  upon?" 

"  No ;  the  Holy  Ghost  is  very  mean  ;  it  is  too  dry  to  pro- 
5* 


106  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

duce  corn  or  beans,  and  the  peons  are  badly  treated,  so  I 
ran  awav  from  it,  and  was  accommodated  by  my  master." 

To  be  accommodated  is  the  phrase  for  being  sold,  or  selling 
one's  self.  The  soft,  smooth  way  in  which  law  and  custom 
words  the  whole  system  of  peonage,  is  in  strange  contrast  to 
the  levity  with  which  sacred  names  are  lavished  on  every 
hand.  We  have  a  farm  laborer  named  Jesus,  and  two  or 
three  female  Jesusas  about  us.  A  low  drinking-shop  in  the 
Mexican  capital  was  called  La  Madrc  de  Dies  (the  Mother 
of  God),  and  the  like  blasphemous  uses  are  made  of  all  the 
names  of  the  Trinity  without  the  slightest  sense  of  improprie- 
ty, throughout  Spain  and  Spanish  America. 

PLACID  A. 

The  boy  Jesus  spoke  of  Placida  as  the  friend  who  stood 
closest  to  him  in  the  absence  of  parents,  home  and  kindred, 
and  I  afterwards  learned  that  his  esteem  was  not  misplaced, 
for  even  in  her  rude  and  stinted  lot,  she  found  scope  to  show 
kindness  and  practice  virtues.  But  what  a  commentary  is 
her  story  on  the  social  abasement  fostered  and  forced 
by  the  adulterous  union  of  church  and  state  !  The  law 
bribes  the  Mexican  priesthood  to  lend  its  influence  to  the 
proprietors  of  the  soil,  by  exacting  enormous  fees  for  every 
religious  service.  The  legal  rates  for  marriage,  baptism 
and  sepulture,  are  beyond  credibility.  The  poorer  classes 
must  sell  themselves  to  the  rich  to  buy  them,  or  they  must 
dispense  with  them  altogether,  yet  the  poor  toiler,  whom  no 
one  cares  to  instruct  in  anything  else,  is  most  carefully  in- 
structed that  the  due  observance  of  these  rites  is  the  only 
gate  to  heaven.  The  legal  marriage  fee  ranges  from  twenty 
to  twenty-seven  dollars,  a  sum  the  ill-paid  laborers  of  Mexico 
rarelv  can  command.     Of  course  immense  numbers  have  the 


PL  AC  IDA.  10Y 

alternative  of  not  marrying  at  all,  or  of  selling  themselves  into 
bondage  to  .satisfy  the  church.  Many  mate  without  its 
sanction,  and  if  the  priests  were  not  very  much  better  than 
the  law  desires  them  to  be,  thousands  more  would  live  and 
die  un wedded.  The  demoralization  is  frightful  where  the 
primary  bond  of  society  sits  so  lightly.  The  perfidy,  ill— 
treatment,  desertions,  and  depraved  family  obligations,  that 
grow  out  of  it,  are  undermining  the  whole  social  fabric,  for 
tlie  higher  orders  do  not  escape  the  reaction  of  the  poisonous 
harvest  sown  by  their  cankered  laws. 

By  the  fountain  side,  as  she  sat  alone  at  the  close  of  a 
week  of  sorrowful  toil,  I  found  Placida,  and  drew  from  her 
heavy-laden  heart  her  history  and  her  griefs.  Her  mother, 
a  peon,  and  the  wife  of  a  peon — though  both  claimed  more 
white  than  Indian  blood — had  lived  in  poverty  and  hardship 
an  unwedded  wife,  until  death  struck  her  down.  Her  tardy 
conscience  woke  in  the  delirious  agonies  of  dissolution,  and 
then  she  gave  two  of  her  children  to  servitude  to  purchase 
the  marriage  rite  and  secure  for  her  body  Christian  burial. 
Thus  she  ended  a  life  of  sin  against  herself  by  a  not  less  sin 
against  her  little  children. 

The  young  Placida  was  one  of  these  motherless  ones,  but 
she  fell  into  gentle  hands  and  was  reared  by  a  kindly  mistress 
more  like  a  daughter  than  a  servant.  She  was  taught  all  the 
elaborate  handiwork  for  which  Mexican  females  are  cele- 
brated ;  and  in  the  capacity  of  camerara  or  chamber  compan- 
ion of  her  mistress  acquired  as  much  of  grace  and  intelligence, 
with  more  wit  and  beauty,  than  fell  to  the  lot  of  any  of  the 
old  lady's  numerous  band  of  nieces  and  kinswomen. 

A  young  man  of  pure  white  blood  and  excellent  family, 
though  poor  and.  an  orphan  himself,  saw  Placida  and  fell  in 
love  like  an  Indian.  That  is  to  say,  with  the  deep  inflexible 
determination  to  win  her  at  any  cost,  through  any  danger 


108  LIFE  ON  THE  BOHDEX. 

and  with  no  care  for  the  future.  He  offered  his  own  body  to 
servitude  for  her  freedom  and  her  love  in  marriage  band.  lie 
was  accepted,  or  rather  the  Mexican  law,  which  is  very  good 
— when  a  man  is  rich  enough  to  buy  it — enabled  him  to  gain 
his  wishes  in  this  way.  A  peon  can  demand  his  cuenta,  or 
account  with  his  master,  if  he  finds  another  master  who  is 
willing  to  take  him  and  pay  it,  and  for  this  reason  every  mas- 
ter is  strenuous  to  increase  the  cuenta  by  setting  down  the 
soap  the  peon  uses  to  wash  his  clothes,  every  ounce  of  meat, 
or  lard,  or  sugar,  with  which  he  is  tempted  to  improve  his 
miserable  ration  of  a  peck  of  corn  a  week ;  every  day  lost  in 
sickness  and  every  particle  of  medicine  he  is  forced  to  swal- 
low, every  thread  of  raiment  for  himself  and  family,  if  in  his 
loneliness  he  is  mad  enough  to  seek  the  solace  of  a  companion, 
all  goes  to  swell  his  account  and  make  a  change  of  masters 
hopeless,  and  often  mortgages  his  children  also  to  slavery. 

A  capable,  active  man  like  Marco,  light  and  lithe  of  limb, 
and  skilful  alike  in  the  charge  of  herds  and  the  labors  of  the 
field,  is  worth  ready  money,  wherever  bone  and  sinew  is  cur- 
rent coin  (and  I  know  not  the  corner  of  the  world  where  the 
sweat  and  life-blood  of  the  laborer  is  not  bought  and  sold  for 
the  benefit  of  the  rich  man),  and  so  Marco  found  his  master 
in  a  cousin  more  favored  than  himself  by  fortune.  The  cuen- 
ta of  his  betrothed  was  demanded  and  paid,  the  benediction 
of  the  church  bought  with  the  same  blood-money,  and  he 
came  with  his  bride  to  a  solitary  but  pleasant  rancho,  a  few 
miles  from  Eagle  Pass,  to  commence  with  her  the  hard  and 
narrow  life  of  a  farm  peon.  In  time  their  lowly  abode  was 
brightened  by  the  sunshine  of  childish  mirth.  How  unspeak- 
ably dear  is  this  gift  from  heaven  to  parents  like  them  !  In 
their  loneliness  and  poverty,  that  baby-boy  was  the  sole  light 
of  life.  The  sun  darkened  in  the  sky  when  the  angel  of  death 
snatched  him  from  their  arms.     In  the  frenzy  of  their  love 


\  VCTOJt  IN  PER  IL.  109 

and  bereavement,  they  gave  all  they  had  left  to  sacrifice — 
the  freedom  of  Placida — to  lay  the  cross  of  baptism  on  its 
expiring  brow,  and  buy  a  place  for  the  too  dear  clay  in  con 
crated  ground. 

The  unhappy  parents  must  not  die  slaves  in  that  gloomy 
and  desolated  hovel ;  but  when  I  strove  to  make  the  afflicted 
mother  share  in  such  hopes,  she  only  replied  by  words  of  her 
lost  child.  She  mourned  less  that  she  is  no  longer  free  than 
that  she  is  no  longer  a  mother. 


VICTOR  IN  PERIL. 

An  evil  genius  seems  to  pursue  our  heedless,  poetical, 
tender-hearted,  light-headed  favorite,  Victor.  lie  is  always 
pitching  headlong  into  some  difficulty,  and  at  whatever  cost 
he  extricates  himself  from  one  to-day,  he  is  always  ready  to 
plunge  into  another  to-morrow.  Yet  he  never  bears  malice, 
never  casts  reproach  or  blame  on  another,  but  forgives  every- 
thing, and  goes  about  singing  as  merrily  as  a  lark  the  mo- 
ment the  pressure  of  the  hour  is  lifted  from  his  heart.  To 
speak  of  a  Mexican  singing  merrily,  however,  is  a  stupid  in- 
consistency. The  key-note  of  all  their  national  melody  would 
suit  a  funeral  hymn.  The  wail  of  death,  the  melancholy 
anthem  of  a  hopeless  and  expiring  race  mingles  in  every  strain. 
Did  ever  any  one  hear  a  child  of  the  Red  Race  carol  a  lay  of 
joyous,  brave-hearted  promise  ?  I  think  not,  and  this  listless 
despondency  half-writes  the  epitaph  of  that  peculiar  and 
mysterious  family,  who,  four  centuries  ago,  were  the  sole 
inheritors  of  this  vast  double  continent,  and  the  lords  of  the 
rich  and  splendid  empires  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  They  are 
prophetic  in  their  sad  melodies,  and  Victor  is  only  a  little  less 
sad  than  most  of  his  race,  not  really  merry  and  heart-free 
like  a  confident  child  of  promise.    But  he  is  naturally  void  of 


1 1 0  LIFE  OX  THE  B  ORDER. 

thought,  or  fear  for  the  future,  and  almost  forgot  he  owed 
money  that  might  cost  him  his  liberty.  With  promises  and 
part-payment  he  put  off  his  Mexican  creditor  for  many 
months,  reckless  of  Mexican  laws,  and  the  danger  of  being 
shipped  into  peonage,  if  caught  on  the  wrong  side  of  the 
river.  He  had  high  ideas,  too,  of  the  dignity  of  American 
citizenship,  and  the  omnipotent  protection  of  the  American 
Stars.  With  the  case  of  Rios  and  the  letter  of  our  Secretary 
of  State  before  us,  we  knew  better  than  he  did  how  frail 
such  a  reliance  would  be,  in  an  emergency  that  demanded 
manly  and  prompt  action  from  Washington,  and  we  warned 
him  to  keep  on  our  own  soil,  and  hasten  to  a  settlement  with 
his  creditor.  This  was  difficult,  as  the  old  horse-dealer  wanted 
ten  dollars,  the  whole  original  debt,  while  in  justice  there 
were  but  three  due  ;  but  he  insisted  on  considering  the  pay- 
ments made  on  account  as  presents,  and  not  to  be  included  in 
the  settlement.  This  Victor  resisted,  and  he  only  went  on 
singing  his  eternal  ditties  when  told  of  his  insecure  position. 
On  the  festival  of  San  Diego,  which  the  Mexicans  reli- 
giously celebrate  by  an  extra  intensity  of  dancing,  gambling, 
and  horse-racing,  there  was  to  be  a  grand  fandango  at  Piedras 
Negras,  and  Jesusa,  Victor's  coquettish  flame,  Avas  resolved 
to  display  at  it  the  unsunned  glories  of  her  new  muslin  dress 
and  lace  reboso.  I  have  said  he  was  careless  of  consequences 
at  all  times,  and  a  thousand  dangers  would  not  frighten  him, 
enamored  and  jealous  as  he  was,  from  following  in  the  foot- 
steps of  his  charmer,  and  watching  in  person  over  his  own 
interests.  His  creditor,  the  wily  old  Sousa,  knew  the  par- 
ties, and  guessed  as  much.  Scarcely  had  Victor  touched 
the  opposite  shore,  when  he  was  pounced  upon  by  those  who 
lay  in  wait  for  him,  and  promptly  conveyed  to  prison,  there 
to  find  the  means  to  pay  the  full  charge  against  him,  or  re- 
concile himself  as  he  might  to  a  long  career  of  bondage.     He 


A    VEXED  QUESTION.  Ill 

i  told  by  t!  in  offi  aid  lie  felt,  too,  at  Ii     . 

that  his  American  citizenship  was  but  a  broken  tinst 

the  Mexican  Biave  laws,  and  he  turned  to  his  employer  as  hie 
sole  refuge.     Be  can  read  and  write  like  a  padre, and  a  brief 

statement  of  his  situation  was  soon  penned  and  on  its  way  to 
us,  though  on  rather  hard  terms.  The  price  of  this  favor 
was  the  admission  of  the  whole  face  of  the  original  debt 
.re  the  alcalde,  and  thus  secured  either  of  his  money  or 
the  body  of  a  peon,  the  son  of  old  Sousa,  a  fair-spoken,  well- 
favored  youth,  rode  over  with  Victor's  appeal  for  aid. 


A  VEXED   QUESTION. 

The  young  man  received  a  brief  and  cold  response,  for  it 
had  been  determined  on  this  side  to  press  home  to  the  autho- 
rities at  Washington  whether  they  would  permit  the  citizens 
of  this  Union  to  be  enslaved  for  debt  in  Mexico.  Some  have 
said — and  woe  to  the  faltering,  faint-hearted  politicians  who 
set  open  this  door  to  bloody  mischief ! — that  as  our  government 
had  failed  to  chastise  foreign  wrong-doers,  who  came  on  our 
soil  with  deeds  of  violence,  that  they  would,  under  that  same 
charter,  enter  at  will  the  soil  of  Mexico  and  deal  out  with 
armed  hand  their  own  code  of  justice.  Others,  and  most  of 
our  immediate  circle  were  of  this  opinion,  were  disposed  to 
proceed  with  every  formality,  so  long  as  law  could  be  found, 
and  when  and  just  where  the  thread  snapped  off,  to  finish 
the  matter  according  to  the  light  of  their  own  conscience,  but 
always  in  a  way  to  compel  the  attention  of  the  Cabinet  and 
force  Congress  to  turn  its  sleepy  eyes  towards  this  troubled 
border.  In  keeping  with  this  resolve,  the  messenger  had  his 
answer. 

"  This  debt  was  contracted  on  this  side  of  the  river,  and 


112  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

must  be  settled  by  our  laws,  and  we  are  besides  more  than 
ready  to  come  to  an  issue,  and  bring  both  governments  to  the 
necessity  of  stating  whether  American  citizens  can  be  sold  for 
peons  in  Mexico." 

"  But  the  great  jurist  "who  is  now  Secretary  of  State,  has 
decided  that  they  must  submit  to  the  tribunals  of  that 
country,"  I  ventured  to  observe.  "  Oh,  that  was  applied  to 
persons  kidnapped  from  our  soil,"  was  the  reply ;  "  and  as 
even  Mr.  Webster  cannot  nullify  all  our  powers  as  men  and 
citizens,  I  think  I  shall  bring  home  Victor  this  day." 

"  I  must  be  of  this  party,"  said  a  friend  :  "  I  have  a  curi- 
osity, a  decided  curiosity  to  hear  the  opinion  of  a  Mexican 
commandante  on  the  propriety  of  making  slaves  of  our  citi- 
zens," and  while  he  spoke  he  buckled  on  his  trusty  six- 
shooter,  and  looked  inquiringly  into  the  state  of  the  neat  flask 
and  pouch  that  usually  kept  company  with  the  revolver. 

"  And  I,  too,  must  be  of  this  agreeable  company,"  added 
our  careless,  good-natured  friend  McG.  "  I  like  to  take  my 
share  in  these  entertaining  conversations  when  they  are  going 
forward,"  and  with  the  word,  another  six-shooter  was  buckled 
on,  and  another  saddled  horse  led  to  the  door. 

"  Victor  himself  might  choose  to  put  in  a  wTord  if  the  dis- 
cussion grows  warm,  and  here  is  an  argument  for  his  use," 
observed  one  of  the  party,  throwing,  as  he  spoke,  on  extra 
pistol  over  the  saddle-bow. 

And  so  in  as  brief  time,  and  as  lightly  as  I  have  written  it, 
were  they  armed,  in  saddle,  and  under  spur,  to  carry  their 
bold  errand  on  to  the  soil  of  Mexico,  into  the  precincts  of  one 
of  her  military  stations. 

Away  they  dash,  fearless  and  light-hearted  borderers  that 
they  are,  as  to  a  festival,  with  smiles  and  words  of  courtesy 
on  their  lips,  but  stern  determination  in  their  hearts.  These 
resolute  and  well-armed  men  will  not  fail  to  be  sufficient  unto 


I VCTOR  RE  LEA  SED.  1 1 3 

themselves  :   they  arc  of  the  manly  mould  and  free  hearts  of 
the  people,  used   to  be   their  own  church  and   state   in   the 
scorching  hour  of  trial,  and  not  like  that  dead,  spongy 
crescence  of  the  popular  will — no,  of  party  intrigue — a  par- 
tisan cabinet. 

They  go  in  determined  earnest  to  claim  back  their  fellow- 
citizen  from  the  clutch  of  iniquitous  bondage,  and  while 
they  clothe  the  demand  in  respectful  phrase,  they  are  alto- 
gether  likely  to  bring  back  their  man.  If  they  do  not,  tl 
will  so  place  the  affair  that  our  derelict  public  servants  must 
answer  at  the  oar  of  Congress,  and  to  the  people  of  the 
Union,  why  they  have  sanctioned  so  long  this  system  of  en- 
slaving American  voters. 

If  blood  flows  in  such  a  quarrel,  aa  flow  it  must  if  our 
officials  continue  their  passive  connivance,  on  whose  head 
rests  the  guilt  of  treason  and  the  shame  of  cowardice  ?  Let 
the  blind  and  gorging  owl  of  party  that  has  supplanted  our 
bold  bird  of  liberty  at  Washington,  prepare  to  look  the  people 
in  the  face,  and  in  their  indignant  glance  read  their  verdict 
of  condemnation. 

VICTOR  RELEASED. 

After  all,  the  main  question  was  not  brought  to  the  test. 
"We  must  wait  a  little  longer  to  know  whether,  and  when,  the 
Government  at  Washington  will  deign  a  glance  of  inquiry  and 
a  word  of  protection  to  citizens  of  the  Union,  who  arc  1 
into  slavery  in  Mexico.     The  principle  still  remains  in  ah 
ance,  and  my  prayers  that  the  Mexican  officials  would  retain 
Victor,  and  our  friends  compel,  by  his  resolute  rescue,  the 
timid  time-servers  of  the  day  to  show  themselves  at  tl 
of  judgment,  fell  dead  to  the  ground.      Victor's  friends  went 
first  to  the  commander  at  Fort  Duncan,  and   requested  him 


114  LIFE  ON  THE  B  ORDER. 

to  demand,  officially,  in  the  absence  of  all  civil  authority  here, 
the  restoration  of  an  American  citizen  held  in  prison,  and  in 
danger  of  perpetual  bondage,  for  a  debt  contracted  on  this 
side  of  the  river,  and  therefore  by  no  fair  construction  of  law 
amenable  to  the  Mexican  penalty  of  servitude.  The  Colonel 
felt  the  case  as  a  man  should,  but  he  was  uncertain  of  the 
range  of  his  powers  and  duty,  and  still  more  uncertain  how 
far  our  Cabinet  would  justify  him  in  too  much  zeal  in  defence 
of  our  own  soil,  flag  and  citizens  ;  so  he  excused  himself  from 
taking  an  active  part,  at  least  until  everything  else  was  tried. 
This  was  exactly  what  suited  the  spirit  so  fast  growing  up  on 
this  frontier.  The  people  have  been  so  long  and  so  shame- 
fully neglected,  that  hundreds  are  as  willing  to  put  our  own 
officials  in  open  and  blazoned  default,  as  they  are  the  Mexi- 
cans. Acute  eyes  and  ready  wits  lie  in  wait  to  seize  upon 
every  clearly  provable  and  inexcusable  lapse,  that  can  be  car- 
ried home  to  the  conviction  of  the  people.  There  are  some 
who  only  wish  so  to  use  the  facts  as  to  bring  the  owls  of 
party  to  a  clear  vision,  and  a  better  performance  of  their  duty. 
This  is  the  sentiment  of  my  family,  and  it  is  my  own  aim  and 
wish,  but  it  ought  to  be  known  in  the  United  States  that  this 
is  not  the  feeling  of  the  "rest  of  mankind  "  out  here.  TliCiC 
are  hundreds,  on  both  sides  of  this  border  line,  who  want  a 
war,  and  who  will  make  a  ivar,  before  this  Administration 
goes  out.  The  criminal  neglect  of  our  public  servants  is  ac- 
cumulating for  them  a  beautiful  entrenchment  of  justifica- 
tions ;  and  Millard  Fillmore  won't  find  his  place  a  bed  of 
roses,  if  he  does  not  look  to  it  himself.  His  sound,  patriotic 
sense  will  soon  set  this  all  right,  if  he  but  takes  it  and  his  sub- 
ordinat'/s  firmly  in  hand  when  he  comes  home  from  his  travels. 
Well,  our  party  having  duly  acquitted  their  consciences  by 
laying  their  plaint  before  Colonel  Wilson,  now  at  Fort  Dun- 
can, and  having  received  the  invariable  border  answer,  "  VVd 


VICTOR  RELEASED.  115 

hare  no  means  to  protect  any  body,  and  i1"  powen  to  do  any- 
thing," they  went  on  rery  contentedly  to  settle  things  in  their 
own  way  with  the  Mexicans.  They  found  the  Commandant 
asleep,  and  the  Alcalde  out  of  the  way  ;  but  they  courteously 
ordered  the  officer  to  be  forthwith  awakened,  and  laid  before 
him  their  errand  without  delay.  He  talked  Webster  to  them 
for  the  first  ten  minutes,  and  the  Secretary  of  State  himself 
could  not  have  dwelt  with  more  unction  and  logical  force  on 
tli"  nullity  of  American  rights,  the  nothingness  of  the  Ameri- 
can flag,  and  the  sweet  and  sacred  duty  of  r<  3pecting  above 
all  tilings,  and  before   all    things,  the  supremacy  of  foreign 

s  whatever  befalls  Americans.  We  are  lazy  here— dis- 
ssingly  lazy.  It  comes,  I  suppose  naturally,  of  a  soft 
southern  climate,  and  an  idle  border  life.  We  cannot  put 
ourselves  to  the  trouble  to  bend  tin-  kn<  e  and  kiss  the  gar- 
ment-hem of  beings  no  better  than  ourselves,  whether  they 
wield  the  lash  in  Cuba  or  Mexico.  Our  party  made  him 
comprehend  that  no  time  would  be  lo^t  in  idle  petitions  to  a 
distant  and  apathetic  authority,  but  that,  nevertheless,  they 
were  not  disposed  to  leave  an  American  citizen  to  be  en- 
slaved for  debt.  The  Mexican  Commandantc  had  a  shrewd 
gue^s,  also,  that  they  were  likely  to  go  on  with  their  purpose 
in  a  fashion  to  create  work  for  both  governments,  with 
very  little  regard  as  to  how  far  either  the  one  or  the 
other  would  be  pleased  in  the  matter.     So  he  met  the  en. 

cy  with  i;ood  grace,  and  offered  them  Victor  as  an  e\idenco 
of  his  own  personal  good-will.     He  could  not  gainsay  the 

•  that  Mr.  Wei  Bter,  in  his  zeal  to  side  with  the  Mexicans, 

:  left  the  door  wide  open  for  American  retaliation.  If 
Mexicans  could  not.  be  punished  for  invading  our  soil  and  car- 
rying off  our  citizens,  neither  could  OUT  citizens  be  punished 
for  passing  into  the  Mexican  territory  and  rescuing  the  wrong- 
fully captured  with  armed  hand.     Like  other  dilemmas,  this  of 


116  LIFE  ON  THE  B  ORDER. 

Mr.  Webster  has  two  ho.ns,  and  he  cannot  eschew  both. 
The  liberation  of  Victor  was  yielded  under  show  of  a  special 
concession  of  friendship,  and  with  a  distinct  insistence  on  the 
principle  laid  down  b)T  our  own  Secretary  of  State,  that  no 
matter  how  he  got  there,  whether  by  dark  deceit  or  open  kid- 
napping, an  American  once  on  the  other  side  loses  all  his 
rights,  and  must  submit  to  slavery  or  whatever  the  Mexican 
law — or  the  want  of  it — may  inflict.  We  must  wait  yet 
awhile  to  test  to  the  core  this  principle  and  the  intentions  of 
our  government.  In  the  case  of  Victor — »nd  I  confess  L  re- 
gret it — it  was  not  brought  to  trial.  The  prison  doors, 
though  closed  by  Mexican  laws,  and  guarded  by  the  written 
decision  of  our  Cabinet,  flew  open  at  the  significant  request  of 
a  few  earnest  men,  and  the  illegal  captive  walked  forth  free. 
Before  the  sun  set  Victor  was  at  home  chantino-  his  inter- 

O 

minable  ballads,  but  some  of  us  were  but  half  content  that 
his  liberty  was  granted  under  protest  and  as  a  favor,  when  it 
should  be  his  by  admitted  right  as  an  American  citizen. 

MR.  WEBSTER'S  MANAGEMENT 

Close  upon  the  deliverance  of  Victor  by  the  resolute  will 
of  the  citizens,  who,  in  the  absence  of  government-protection, 
decided  on  protecting  themselves,  came  up  tidings  of  similar 
disorders,  similar  omissions,  and  similar  necessity  of  acting  in 
self-preservation  at  other  points  on  the  border.  It  was 
too  evident  that  this  unhappy  charter  of  impunity  for  all  man- 
ner of  crimes  would  provoke  retaliation,  and  if  Mr.  Webster's 
unheard-of  doctrines  were  fully  acted  upon,  deluge  the 
frontier  in  blood.  Congress  and  the  country  seemed  entirely 
oblivious  to  the  fact  that  the  border  was  virtually  abandoned 
to  the  Camanches,  without  one  earnest  effort  for  its  defence, 
and  its  inhabitants  officially  given  over  to  be  carried  off  and 


MIL    I  MANAGEMENT.  n? 

enslaved  for  debt,  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Mexicans.      The 

■ite  was  appealed  to,  and  received  statement  of  the  ei 
situation  of  the  frontier  with  incredulous  surprise,  but  on  the 
26th  of  Feb.,  1851,  it  called  on  the  i         ary  of  Stale  for 

information  "concerning  (he  forcible  abduction  of  any  citizen 
of  the  United  States,  or  of  any  person  living  under  their  pro- 
ud of  his  conveyance,  to  be  reduced  into  Peon  t 
vitude  in  the  Republic  of  Mexico."     On  the  3d  of  March,  the 
day  before  Con  adjourned,  and  when  it  was  too  late  to 

prosecute  the  inquiry  very  closely,  Mr.  Webster  sent  in  all  the 
correspondence  respecting  (he  abduction  of  poor  Manuel  Rios, 
with  but  one  exception.  This  exception  is  so  peculiar  and 
unprecedented  that  it  would  never  command  belief  if  it  was 
not  of  undeniable  record.    It  is  this:  the  Secretary  of  State 

pr€89ed,  withheld  utterly,  from  the  Senate,  his  own  letter 
of  legal  judgment  and  Cabinet  fiat,  which  is  given  a  few- 
pages  back,  and  which  was  the  principal  object  of  the  call  of 
the  Senate.  In  the  stead  of  the  letter  of  scornful  discour- 
ment  which  he  positively  did  send  to  the  remote,  uncared- 
for  borderers,  but  which  he  dared  not  lay  before  the  search- 
ing eye  of  the  Senate,  he  says,  "  the  Legation  at  the  city  of 
Mexico  have  been  instructed  to  inquire  into  the  case  to  which 
these  documents  relate;  but  as  there  is  no  treaty  of  extradi- 
tion with  the  Mexican  Republic,  it  will  probably  be  difficult 
to  reach  the  offenders." 

No  one  will  have  the  rudeness  to  doubt  Mr.  Webster's 
veracity,  and  of  course  he  had  "instructed  the  Legation  at 
Mexico  "  to  do  something  or  other,  though  in  what  form,  or 
to  what  end,  is  not  visible,  since  in  more  than  a  year  there 
has  been  no  sign  of  any  result.  Even  the  rebuke  of  tho 
Seriate  did  not  provoke  the  slightest  attention  to  the  deplora- 
ble state  of  the  border.  His  license  to  marauders  still  re- 
mained an  unrepealed  and  effective  decree  of  outlawry  for  the 


118  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

border,  and  not  the  slightest  movement — at  least  there  is  no 
evidence  of  any — has  been  made  to  obtain  the  "  treaty  of 
extradition,"' which  he  declared  an  all-essential  preliminary  to 
any  act  of  self-defence.  Band  after  band  of  Mexican  rob- 
bers crossed  the  river  and  committed  the  most  atrocious  out- 
rages, until  at  last,  after  about  thirty  Americans  had  been 
plundered  and  slaughtered  at  their  own  camps  and  firesides, 
the  terrible  state  of  the  frontier  was  brought  before  Mr.  Fill- 
more himself.  His  upright  spirit  was  moved  to  active  meas- 
ures, and  something  may  possibly  be  done  before  it  is  alto- 
gether too  late.  Still  it  must  not  be  concealed  from  the  peo- 
ple of  the  United  States,  that  up  to  the  month  of  July,  1S52, 
after  nearly  two  years  of  strenuous  complaint,  this  is  still 
tho  shameful  position  of  our  border  population. 

The  country  is  abandoned  to  the  Indians,  who  press  their 
depredations  up  to  the  very  precincts  of  our  posts,  lead- 
ing their  trains  of  stolen  horses  and  captive  women,  and 
slaughtering  the  herds  of  our  citizens  within  hearing  of  the 
drums  of  our  posts,  and  those  posts  being  but  feeble  infantry 
stations,  are  carelessly  left  without  the  means  of  repressing 
the  savages.  The  citizens  themselves  are  liable  to  be  carried 
by  violence  from  their  homes  and  sold  for  debt  in  Mexico ; 
unoffending  residents  on  our  soil  have  been,  and  are,  torn 
almost  weekly  from  their  homes  in  the  midst  of  our  settle- 
ments, and  still,  even  to  tlte  call  of  our  magistrates,  the  Secre- 
tary of  State  ventures  to  reply  that  this  Repuhlic  cannot  pre- 
vent, or  chastise ,  the  abduction  and  enslavement  of  an  American 
citizen  for  debt. 

INDIAN  RANGERS. 

Meantime  our  settlement  thrives  apace.      \Vorkingmen  and 
mechanics  come  over  to  us  from  Mexico  with  their  families, 


INDIAN  RANQBRB  119 

and  women  and  children  begin  to  flit  about  the  prairies.  If 
tli"  government  forgets  to  take  care  of  us,  we  will  try  to  take 
care  of  ourselves.  Yet  something  like  a  national  system  of 
border  protection  begins  to  dawn  forth  in  a  few  imperfect 
ravs,  it  is  true,  but  still  they  foretell  the  coming  day.  The 
utter  Absence  of  connected,  judicious  lines  of  communication 
along  this  whole  frontier  is  absolutely  incredible,  and  i: 
rather  t<>  the  neglect  of  Congress  and  the  inertia  of  three  or 
four  of  the  highest  officers  in  the  army  than  to  the  Cabinet, 
that  this  glaring  default  is\o  be  imputed.  Fort  Duncan  ji 
intended,  if  anybody  had  a  cleav  intention  in  the  matter,  to 
cheek  the  Indians  and  protect  the  great  line  of  travel  which 
crosses  into  Mexico  and  there  branches  on  the  route  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  to  the  right  and  left  of  it  on  the  paths  of  trade  to 
the  mining  districts.  The  site  chosen  is  not  the  very  best, 
but  if  there  was  a  sufficient  force,  which  Congress  refused,  it 
would  still  be  of  infinite  value  in  cutting  off  Indian  forays  on 
the  lower  country.  There  are  several  famous  old  Indian 
crossing-places  above,  and  still  others  not  far  below,  the  fort, 
which,  if  a  little  more  frequently  visited  by  reconnoitering 
parties,  would  have  to  be  abandoned  by  these  enterprising 
red  gentlemen.  But  unhappily  there  is  seldom  enough  men 
at  the  post  to  do  garrison  duty,  and  of  course  the  Indians 
come  and  go  at  their  leisure.  Wild  Cat  has  chastised  them 
occasionallv,  and  might  be  converted  into  a  permanent  and 
powerful  safeguard  if  the  government  would  assign  his 
band  a  home  and  rations.  Bread,  powder,  and  shot  would 
be  the  main  part  of  the  tax,  and  it  would  be  at  once  most 
humane,  most  politic,  and  most  economical,  to  create  a  kind 
of  border  militia  of  the  friendly  tribes.  It  could  so  be  ar- 
ranged as  to  gather  their  families  in  settled  homes  where  they 
would  be  systematically  fed,  clothed  and  instructed,  at  once 
a  present  hostage  for  the  fidelity  of  their  warriors,  and  a 


120  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

pledge  of  the  future   good  conduct  of  their  tribe.     We  owe 

something  very  different  to  the  Indians  on  our  borders  from 
the  mockery  of  gifts  and  treaties,  which  we  have  dealt  them — 
gifts  of  rum  to  destroy,  treaties  that  covered  their  sure  de- 
struction with  specious  promises  of  peace  and  protection. 
Yet  we  call  ourselves  excellent  Christians,  and  thank  God  we 
are  not  wicked,  like  other  nations. 

Feebly  as  Fort  Duncan  is  manned,  its  mere  presence  gives 
security  to  the  settlement,  although  the  most  formidable  thing 
about  it  is  the  name  of  a  United  States  military  fort.  That 
has  an  imposing  sound,  and  the  Indians  will  not  attack  it,  or 
the  dwellers  under  its  shadow,  although  if  they  chose,  they 
could  muster  strong  enough  to  take  it  almost  any  day.  Three 
or  four  skeleton  companies — and  very  thin  skeletons  they  are 
— are  all  the  government  can  allow  for  four  or  five  hundred 
miles  of  this  river  frontier.  If  these  infantry  companies  can- 
not be  supplied  by  contract  with  the  seven-league  boots  of  the 
fairy  tale,  there  is  no  use  in  the  world  in  sending  them  after 
the  Indians.  Yet,  to  say  the  very  truth,  we  have  no  fears  of 
the  Indians  at  Eagle  Pass.  Their  tracks  and  camp-fires  are 
seen  almost  weekly  by  our  shepherds,  and  they  are  known  to 
pass  near  us  with  trains  of  captive  Mexican  women  and  children, 
but  an  armed  neutrality  is  the  order  of  the  times  between 
them  and  the  Americans.  They  steal  our  horses  and  cattle 
now  and  then,  and  far  afield  a  dead  body  is  sometimes  found 
bearing  their  death  mark,  but  they  give  a  wide  berth  to  the 
dwellings.  I  ride  out  in  my  rambling  way  two  or  three  miles, 
and  never  think  of  the  danger  of  an  Indian  surprise. 

PABLITO. 

We  have  an  intelligent,  brave  little  fellow  with  our  shep- 
herds who  escaped  from  the  Indians  with  the  intrepid  fore- 


PABLJTO.  121 

thought  of  ;i  veteran.  Pablo,  or  Pablito,  as  wo  call  hira  to 
uish  him  from  the  <>ld  Bbepherd  of  the  same  name,  was 
living  with  his  mother  on  a  rancho  near  Monterey.  The 
Oamanchea  swept,  down  on  them  one  black  night,  and  with 
many  a  dead  body  and  bloody  sign  left  behind  on  their  deso- 
lating track,  they  returned  homeward  with  a  plentiful  booty 
in  horses,  women  and  children.  The  Camanches  have. 
;.:  1  a  course  towards  captives  of  this  class,  which  seems 
the  result  of  a  fixed  policy.  The  young  females  are  given  as 
slave- wives  to  their  warriors,  and  the  children  are  enrolled 
among  their  own  native-born  youth.  Among  the  Indians  this 
has  always  been  done  in  partial  instances,  to  supply  a  loss  by 
death,  or  to  gratify  the  fancy  of  a  favorite  brave,  but  these 
Camanches  seem  to  make  it  a  subject  of  premeditated  effort 
to  obtain  as  large  an  infusion  of  white  and  civilized  members 
as  they  can  obtain  for  their  tribe  ;  yet  they  have  no  appear- 
ance of  wishing  to  learn  any  of  the  habits  of  civilized  life. 
Some  think  there  is  under  this  a  superstitious  hope  to  con- 
vey to  their  tribe  some  of  the  resistless  powers  of  the  whites. 
However  this  is,  Pablito,  a  clear-eyed  and  readv-witted  boy, 
was  destined  by  them  to  share,  with  many  a  weeping  girl  in 
their  train  of  captives,  the  capricious  adoption  of  the  Ca- 
manche  lodges.  With  a  quiet  resolution,  wonderful  in  a  boy 
of  ten,  he  determined  to  escape  even  from  their  distant  hunt- 
ing grounds,  if  Providence  did  not  favor  him  with  an  earlier 
day.  On  this  resolution  he  acted,  and  his  first  step  was  to 
calm  suspicion  and  conciliate  good-will  by  assuming  an  air  of 
content,  and  evincing  on  every  occasion  a  prompt  desire  to 
obey  and  oblige  his  captors.  The  young  philosopher  had 
even  the  wisdom  to  recommend  to  the  female  companions  of 
this  harsh  journey  to  suppress  their  tears,  and  follow  his  ex- 
ample of  a  tranquil  and  resigned  demeanor.  "  But,"  6aid  he, 
with  the  slightest  po^sible  tmile  curving  his  handsome  lip, 
0 


122  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

"  I  did  not  think  it  discreet  to  trust  them  "with  my  whole  plan 
of  escape." 

The  savages  had  crossed  the  Bravo  and  were  far  beyond 
pursuit  on  the  American  side,  before  they  relaxed  in  their 
haste  or  watchfulness,  but  when  the  nearest  settlement  was  a 
hundred  miles  in  their  rear  they  abated  their  pace  and  allowed 
some  rest  to  their  worn-out  captives.  Pablito  had  noticed 
among  their  stolen  horses  a  hardy  black  mustang  that 
never  stumbled  or  flagged  in  their  desperate  flight — and 
this  he  marked  for  his  own.  There  were,  he  said,  more 
beautiful  horses  among  them  and  some  that  were  fleeter  for 
a  race  of  a  few  miles,  but  not  one  that  could  carry  him  so  far 
without  rest  or  food,  as  he  intended  to  go  towards  his  mother 
and  his  country  before  he  stopped.  He  had  made  up  his 
mind,  with  the  stoic  endurance  of  Indian  blood,  that  he  could 
have  nothing  to  eat  for  the  first  three  davs,  but  in  no  wise 
daunted  by  this  he  launched  out  on  his  dimly-known  course. 
In  the  night,  when  the  tired  and  unsuspecting  savages  had  at 
last  abandoned  themselves  to  untroubled  sleep,  he  stole  softly 
round  to  the  desert-steed  of  his  choice,  detached  hin.  noise- 
lessly from  his  picket,  led  him  gently  over  the  grass  to  a  safe 
distance,  and  then  alone,  with  no  equipment  but  the  Indian 
halter  on  his  horse,  unarmed  and  unprovisioned,  he  turned 
his  face  towards  home  and  his  mother.  His  general  direction 
was  correct,  and  at  the  end  of  three  days  he  was  met  on  the 
prairie  by  a  friend  of  ours,  and  conducted  to  Eagle  Pass.  I 
claim  the  bold  boy  for  my  own  particular  service.  It  would 
be  a  sin  to  crush  the  spirit  of  this  forest  Bayard,  into  the  nar- 
row, down-trodden  space  of  a  peon's  life  ;  but  we  must  bring 
his  mother  to  him  before  we  can  arrange  his  future,  and, 
meantime,  by  his  own  choice,  he  ranges  the  hills  and  river- 
dells  on  his  bonny  black  in  company  with  the  shepherds  and 
mounted  herdsmen. 


SHEPHERD  LIFE.  y^ 


SHEPHERD  LIFE. 


Out  Bhepberda  have  their  autumn  camp  in  q 
eluded  faida  or  lap  of  the  hills,  that  slopes  down  to  the  wa- 
ter's edge  in  a  thick  carpet  of  mezquil   g        ,  about  six  mi 
below  Eagle   P  It  is  hedged  up  and  veiled  around  by  a 

luxuriant frondage  of  wild  growth,  and  so  backed  and  wall  I 
in  by  a  steep  range  of  barren  hills,  that  the  traveller  might 
pass  it  at  a  short  distance  twenty  times  before  he  discovert  d 
it,  or  noted  the  deep  path  that  winds  into  it  between  the  river 
and  the  almost  perpendicular  mountain-side.  It  is  arnib 
to  sec  Pablito  sorting  out  and  keeping  order  among  a  hum! 
or  two  of  young  lambs  and  kids  as  they  frolic  about  the 
shady  pen,  impatient  for  their  mothers,  who  have  been  led 
out  to  pasture  in  a  separate  flock.  He  has  made  some 
changes  in  the  family  distribution,  and  the  mothers  who  have 
twins  are  to  be  robbed  of  one  of  their  young  to  supply  some 
bereaved  ones  with  substitutes  for  their  lost  offspring.  The 
older  shepherds  arc  not  half  as  tender  and  adroit  as  mv  ac- 
tive, attentire  Pablito  in  making  these  substitutions,  and  he 
is  evidently  gratified  with  my  visits  and  the  warm  interest  I 
take  in  his  extensive  youug  family.  He  will  announce  to  me 
with  the  gravest  solicitude,  that  the  real  mother  of  that 
painted  kid  has  a  daily  quarrel  with  its  adopted  mother  to  re- 
gain it,  and  tell  me  how  "  that  black  lamb  with  the  white  mark 
on  its  head,  like  a  royal  crown,"  was  lost  by  its  dam  and 
ched  up  by  itself  another  one  in  that  line  blooded  ewe. 
In  fine,  we  have  an  infinity  of  important  consultations  together, 
and  neither  of  us  ever  tires  of  watching  the  ways  of  the  ani- 
mals. In  these  visits  I  have  learned  to  comprehend  the 
charm  of  a  pastoral  life,  so  hard  to  be  understood,  like  the 
freedom  of  the  sea,  by  those  to  whom  it  is  not  congenial. 
This  out-door  life  and  the  easy  movement  from  place  to  pi 


124  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

has  sufficient  occupation  to  give  relish  to  his  simple  diet  and 
airy  couch,  with  so  much  care  and  aim  as  to  keep  astir  his 
faculties,  but  not  enough  of  either  to  load  him  with  anxiety. 
The  shepherd  "wakes  in  the  morning  with  something  to  do 
before  him  ;  he  throws  himself  down  to  sleep  at  night  with  the 
consciousness  of  something  done.  The  daily  task  and  daily 
bread  are  finished  together,  and  he  passes  into  slumber  on  the 
wings  of  duty  done,  and  the  lulling  certainty  that  to-morrow's 
work  is  within  the  easy  compass  of  to-morrow's  strength. 

This  calm  monotony  would  not  suit  the  eagle  soul  who  feels 
a  higher  but  more  troublous  mission  beating  at  his  heart  for 
outlet,  but  to  those  who  are  of  lowlier  ambition  there  is  a 
sweet  independence  and  an  unspeakable  repose  in  a  pastoral 
life.  The  sun  disappears  behind  his  golden  curtain,  the  stars 
glance  kindly  from  the  cloudless  sky,  a  light  blaze  flickers 
cheerfully  under  the  over-hanging  branches,  lighting  up  with 
changeful  smiles,  the  white  tent  picturesquely  gleaming  among 
the  foliage,  and  cheerful  voices  rise  and  fall  around  it,  like 
the  music  of  the  distant  sea.  Our  shepherds  are  enjoying 
their  supper  of  atole,  or  meal  boiled  in  milk,  roasted  ears  of 
corn,  and  broiled  kid,  and  Pablito,  with  wide-open  and  as- 
tonished eyes,  is  hearing,  for  the  first  time,  what  everybody 
on  the  border  hears  doubtingiy  at  first,  but  at  last  comes  to 
accept  as  truth,  that  the  Americans  bring  regular  rains  and 
seasons,  such  as  they  desire,  with  them.  Pablito,  with  much 
polite  deference,  ventures  upon  some  incredulity,  but  Domin- 
go assures  him  upon  the  faith  of  a  baptized  Christian,  it  is 
true,  for  he  knows  that  in  Texas  thev  had,  in  old  times,  the 
same  serene,  unweeping  skies  that  now  overhang  the  Bravo 
and  despoil  its  harvests,  year  after  year,  but  as  soon  as  the 
Americans  came  and  tore  up  the  soil  far  and  wide  with  their 
great  steel  ploughs,  the  rains  began  to  fall  wherever  they 
made  settlements,  and  kept  step  with  them  as  they  advanced 


SHEPHERD  I.  /■>:.  120 

>tward;  from  the  Trinity  to  the  Braa  •:  from   the  Bra 
to  the  Colorado;  from  the  Colorado  to  the  Nueces,  and  now 
the  harvest-giving  rains  v.  illowing  their  inarch  to  the 

Bravo.  This  is  a  singular  truth,  and  a  more  complete  phi- 
losophy may  explain  the  rationale  in  the  planting  of  trees,  and 
household  fires,  and  the  upturning  of  the  earth,  but  young 
Pablito  was  rather  slow  of  faith  in  such  phenomena. 

"  It  is  a  curious  thin^,"  said  Pablito  senior,  who  is  the  dea- 
:  of  the  P(  on  circle,  as  \  ictor  is  its  scholar,  "a  marvellous 
thing  in  truth,  how  these  Americans  persuade  the  rains  to 
follow  them  wherever  they  go,  while  Christians  have  to  dig 
quias  (canals  for  irrigation,)  it  is  really  wonderful." 
"  Do  the  bees  also  go  before  the  Americans  ?"  asked  Pab- 
lito with  ini 

"You  may  believe  not,"  interposed  Domingo  with  energy. 
"  The  bees  belong  to  St.  John  the  Baptist,  and  they  always  ap- 
pear before  Christians  come  to  a  country,  in  order  to  warn 
the  Pagans  lo  make  way  for  them,  but  the  Americans  have 
no  religion,  and  .San  Juan  will  not  send  his  bees  to  drive  out 
am  body  f<  »r  them.  Yet  it  is  true  rain  is  given  to  them,  though 
they  have  no  saints  or  any  religion." 

None  of  the  company  could  explain  this  mystery,  and  it 
may  still  be  agitated  in  their  .Mar-lit  councils,  unless,  indeed, 
they  have  finally  accepted  a  suggestion  of  Pablito's.  He  re- 
membered, ai  Monterey,  the  celebration  of  some  national  day 
by  a  party  of  Americans,  in  which  they  fired  salutes,  drank 
ag%  V,  and  made  as  great  an  uproar  generally  as  twice 

many  Mexicans  could  do,  with  all  their  facilities  of  noise- 
making  excited  to  the  highest,  and  all  this  squared  so  exactly 
with  an  Indian's    ideas  of  a  grand  religiou  val  that  the 

boy  thought,  very  naturally,  it  must  be  in  honor  of  their 
patron  saint.  The  name  of  Washington  had  Bomo  association 
with  this  tempestuous  jubilee,  and  he  modestly  intimated  his 


12G  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

belief  that  San  Washington  was  the  patron  of  the  Americans, 
and  that  it  was  his  intercession  that  brought  them  these  re- 
freshing and  crop-producing  showers.  For  some  mischievous 
reason  of  his  own  our  man  Victor,  who  was  saddling  the 
horses  for  our  homeward  ride,  thought  proper  to  encourage 
this  opinion,  and  almost  clinched  their  belief  that  after  all  it 
was  possible  the  Yankees  had  a  religion  and  a  saint  of  their 
own,  by  reminding  them  how  parched  and  rainless  northern 
Mexico  has  been  since  the  American  arm)7  had  withdrawn 
from  the  countiy. 


THE  INDIAN  ALPHABET, 

We  were  riding  one  dav  arnono-  the  broken  rano-e  of  hills, 
that  press  down  close  to  the  river,  some  seven  or  eight  miles 
below  Eagle  Pass,  when  Pablito  quite  calmly  observed  that 
eleven  mounted  Indians  had  passed  along  there  the  day  before, 
with  a  train  of  horses  and  captives. 

"Who  gives  this  information,  Pablito?"  I  naturally  in- 
quired. 

"  I  see  it  with  my  eyes  ;  here  are  the  tracks,"  said  the  boy 
confidently,  and  almost  surprised  that  any  eyes  could  fail  to 
see  them.  I  dismounted,  and  with  careful  observation  could 
discern  through  the  short  grass  a  confused  multitude  of  tracks, 
but  they  seemed  too  faint  and  too  much  overlaid,  one  upon 
the  other,  to  be  worth  much  as  guides,  but  I  desired  to  know 
how  my  brave  and  intelligent  little  shepherd  came  to  such 
definite  conclusions. 

"  There  were  three  large  American  horses,  as  you  can  see 
by  the  size  of  their  foot-prints,  and  two  mules,  and  the  rest, 
as  you  may  see  by  their  little  unshod  feet,  were  mustangs, 
(native  ponies,)  and  they  were  afraid  and  went  fast,  for  here 


Til  REE  Vi  \  R  MB  u  F  8  LA\  rER  7.  \%1 

the  hoofs  all  come  down  in  a  gallop,  and  close  to  the  leader, 
for  the  track  is  narrow  and  equal." 

"  But  how  do  you  know  that  these  eleven  animals  were  all 

■ 

that  bore  riders  out  of  so  large  a  cavallarda  .'" 

"  The  hones  that  are  free  scatter  out  in  a  broad  and  unequal 
line,  and  those  that  carry  the  weight  of  a  master  leave  deeper 
prints."  He  pointed  out  to  me  the  difference,  but  I  could  dis- 
cover none.  It  would  be  invisible  to  any  sight  but  that  of  an 
Indian,  or  a  keen  and  practised  borderer. 

"  And  why  are  you  so  sure  that  they  passed  yesterday,  and 
late  in  the  day?" 

"  Ah  !  it  is  very  clear.  It  was  not  before  the  norther  that 
blew  so  freshly  in  the  forenoon,  for  that  would  have  covered 
the  tracks  with  more  dust,  and  yet  there  are  signs  on  them  of 
the  sprinkle  we  had  before  sunset." 

"Are  you  willing  to  take  your  pony  and  follow  up  the 
trail,  for  more  information  ?" 

"  If  you  command  it,"  was  the  prompt  reply.  I  had  no 
thought  of  sending  him  out  on  this  dangerous  quest,  but  I 
am  sure  he  would,  if  so  ordered,  have  taken  the  trail  at  once. 
They  have  no  other  books,  but  they  read  letter  by  letter 
these  signs  and  marks  in  the  wilderness,  and  spell  out  their 
meaning  as  certainly  as  if  they  read  it  from  a  printed  page  ; 
and  these  Mexicans  are  as  far  from  cowards,  and  as  willing  to 
face  any  danger,  of  which  they  can  comprehend  the  nature 
and  the  way  of  contending  with  it,  as  any  people  in  the 
world. 

1  Jilt EE  FORMS  OF  SL.ll  rER  \ '. 

Haas,  th<-n,  we  have  side  by  sid.',  as  if  laid  out  for  dissec- 
tion and  verdict,  the  three  forms  of  slavery  into  which  Christ- 
endom divides  its  profitable  custom  of  trading  in  the  bones 


128  LliE  ON  THE  BOLD  Eh. 

and  blood  of  human  labor.  We  have  African  servitude  on 
our  side  of  the  river,  and  they  have  white  and  Indian  servi- 
tude on  the  other.  It  is  comfortable  to  have  this  difference 
in  our  ways,  for  by  it  we  can  be  as  much  shocked  as  we 
please  at  our  neighbor's  iniquities  and  lead  him  glowing  les- 
sons on  the  awfulness  of  his  doings,  and  he  can  do  the  same 
by  us ;  and  so  nobody  have  lime  to  look  at  their  own  sins. 
"What  a  miserable,  moping  set  we  would  be  all  around,  if  we 
had  no  faults  but  our  own  to  cure  !  Then  the  superfine  free- 
soil  Christian  that  kills  nothing  but  white  factory  girls  and  hired 
bond-servants  with  neglect,  contempt,  unwholesome  fare,  over- 
work and  the  like,  has  such  a  delicious  charter  to  be  severe  on 
the  owners  of  bought  black  slaves  and  red  ones.  It  would  be 
a  pity — and  a  new  thing  in  human  nature — if  we  did  not  en- 
joy the  banquet  of  self-glorification. 

The  third  form  of  servitude — the  hireling  servitude  of  want, 
ignorance  and  vice — is  not,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  an  he- 
reditary destiny,  at  least,  not  quite  so  absolutely  as  it  is  in  the 
Old  World,  but  still  there  are  thousands  born  in  our  large 
cities  with  the  taint  of  sin  and  neglect  so  strong  upon  and 
around  them,  that  the  honest,  full  grown  life  of  freedom  is 
as  nearly  impossible  to  their  fettered  souls  as  emancipation, 
and  the  light  that  must  keep  step  with  it,  is  to  the  born  thrall 
of  a  southern  plantation.  The  man  who  must  sell  his  sweat 
and  sinews  to  hard  repulsive  toil,  or  starve,  is  not  free.  The 
child  who  is  nurtured  in  misery  and  vice,  who  is  never  taught 
how  to  live  a  useful  life,  and  who  from  the  cradle  is  goaded 
into  a  war  of  self-preservation  against  the  interests  of  his  fel- 
low-man, is  notlikely  to  win  a  true  and  honorable  freedom. 
The  place  of  beginning  is  to  so  frame  the  laws  and  customs 
of  society,  that  instruction  and  employment  shall  be  the  sure 
and  well-understood  right  of  all  the  children  of  the  State. 
The  next  step  will  follow  more  easily  and  naturally,  which  is 


THREE  .  OF  SLAVERY.  129 

i  >  make  tabor  I  ble.     Not  to  talk  of  its  bonor  and  utility 

in  general  abstract  ml  then  descend  from  the  pulpit  or 

foram,  to  wither  with  courtly  scorn,  or  trample  down  in  the 
mire  with  aristocratic  heel,  your  hired  servant  who  has  be  11 
provided  with  no  honest  way  of  getting  bread  but  by  selling 
you  all  the  good  years  of  his  life. 

My  test  of  a  sincere  and  consistent  anti-slavery  man  is  very 
simple,  yet  in  Borne  Bcores  of  intelligent  professors  of  that 
faith,  I  have  found  but  two  who  came  up  to  it.  It  is  this  : 
Will  tie'  disciple  of  equal  rights  give  «  place  at  hie  table  to 
his  hired  domestics?  Will  he  welcome  to  his  parlor  the  me- 
chanic who  has  created  its  elegance? 

One  of  these  two  men  was  a  preacher,  and  an  ornament  of 
the  Methodist  church,  and  if  his  whole'  household  were 
gathered  at  one  table,  and  shared  in  all  the  amenities  of  a 
simple  yet  refined  family  circle,  he  was  careful  that  none  were 
admitted  to  it  who  would  endanger  its  purity  by  the  shadow 
of  vicious  coarseness.  The  other  was  simply  a  fanatic,  and 
goes  for  nothing,  since  fanaticism,  like  other  insanities,  teaches 
nothing  except  by  its  warnings.  The  good  Shepherd,  for 
that  was  his  name  as  well  as  his  vocation,  practised  the  equal- 
ity he  preached,  but  even  this  high-minded  exception  to  the 
general  army  of  theorists  did  not,  in  his  actual  practice,  put 
the  rough,  unhewn  block  in  the  place  of  the  polishnd  corner- 
stone. He  did  what  all  pretend  a  desire  to  do,  yet  few  of  us 
even  attempt  to  perform  in  fact  ;  he  gave,  in  every  r« 
due  honor  and  fellowship  to  tie-  honorable  and  worthy  laborer. 
By  this  course  of  justice,  respect  an  I  fellowship,  the  toiler  is 
polished  and  elevai  d,  and  without  asking  any  01  ndure 

companionship    of    vulgar,   DAtTOW-mindi -dness  (though 
such  often  comes  to  our  doors  in  carriages),  it  is  in  the  power 
of  every  member  of  good  society  to  help  largely  in  this  mis- 
sion.    Most  of  all,  women  may  do  much  for  our  domestic 
6* 


130  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

heathen  by  reserving  and  using  for  the  bloated  intemperance 
of  the  rich  man,  the  careless  scorn  that  now  rains  down  dis- 
couragement and  abasement  upon  the  head  of  the  man  of  toil. 
I  only  supplicate  that  worth  and  intelligence  shall  be  honored 
wherever  it  is  met ;  that  it  shall  have  a  welcome  and  courtesy 
wherever  you  are  ;  that  it  shall  be  held  as  ill-bred,  as  it  cer- 
tainly is  unchristian,  to  affect  a  shallow  contempt  for  the  re- 
presentative of  any  trade  or  calling,  while  the  man  is  your 
equal  in  the  gifts  of  heaven  and  in  their  proper  cultivation. 
Let  every  just  man  and  woman  in  the  nation  resolve  to  treat 
all  the  working  people  in  their  sphere  of  influence  with  the 
social  distinction  that  his  or  her  own  conscience  declares  to 
be  merited,  and  at  once  the  whole  national  character  will  be 
ennobled,  for  man  will  outrank  money.  There  are  many  who 
will  meanly  and  timidly  shrink  from  receiving  in  their  drawing- 
rooms  an  able  mechanic  or  a  practical  inventor  perhaps,  while 
they  make  haste  to  kiss  the  shoe-tie  of  any  weak,  idle,  dissi- 
pated young  lord,  who  has  no  merit  on  earth  more  than  that 
some  ancestor  was  a  fortunate  robber,  or  adroit  court  perjurer. 
But  these  are  as  unworthy  of  the  imperial  birth-right  of  an 
American  citizen  as  they  are  in  faith  and  practice  unfit  to  sit 
at  the  table  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  They  are  as  deficient  in 
the  courage  and  dignity  of  republicans  as  they  are  in  the  lov- 
insr-kindness  of  Christ. 

PE  ONI  ZING  A  MOTHER. 

A  tall,  fine-looking  woman,  with  every  mark  of  gentle 
nurture  that  can  be  seen  in  any  Mexican  lady,  came  to  ask  a 
confidential  interview.  We  conversed  at  length,  and  her 
grace,  gentleness,  and  well-turned  expressions  left  a  deep  im- 
pression on  my  feelings.  This  lady  was  the  bond-servant  of 
her  son's  widow,  assigned  to  her  with  other  portions  of  the 


PEONIZINQ    l    MOTHER.  131 

deceased  husband's  chattels  as  the  widow's  share  of  his  pro- 
perty.    This  is   the  bitter  feature  of   peon  servitude  ;    the 

most  delicate  white  lady,  the  fairest  child  of  promise  niav  be 
dragged  down  to  it  on  the  first  cloud  of  misfortune,  and 
those  01  their  own  blood  are  often  tempted  by  the  facilities 
of  the  law  to  traffic  in  the  bondage  of  their  kinsmen. 

Anita  was  the  daughter  of  an  old  Spanish  officer  who  died, 
sword  in  hand,  in  defending  the  cause  of  the  crown  against 
revolted  Mexico.  The  orphan  was  protected,  as  were  hun- 
dreds mora  of  portionless  girls,  in  a  nunnery  of  San  Luis,  or 
Monterey,  until  a  home  was  found  for  her,  and  she  finally 
married  a  merchant  of  the  place.  When  at  his  death  his 
eldest  son  succeeded  him  in  the  business,  it  was  discovered  to 
be  in  a  bad  state,  or  at  least  so  averred  her  son  Don  Bias,  and 
on  his  proposal  the  family  removed  to  one  of  the  towns  nc  ..  - 
er  the  Bravo  in  order  to  be  on  the  line  of  contraband  trade. 
Here  Dolia  Anita  gave  away  her  daughter  in  marriage,  but 
only  to  see  the  fair  young  bride  begin  to  wither  and  sink  into 
the  grave  under  the  rule  of  a  harsh,  miserly,  unloving  hus- 
band. The  unhappy  mother  received  in  her  arms  a  helpless 
infant,  the  dying  gift  of  her  daughter,  when  she  closed  her 
eves.  Before  this  blow  fell  upon  her,  Don  Bias,  hei  now- 
prosperous  son,  had  also  wedded  the  heiress  of  a  wealthy 
ranchero,  and  on  bringing  home  his  wife  he  thought  proper 
to  come  to  a  settlement  with  his  mother. 

It  is  among  the  curious  inconsistencies  of  the  Mexicans  that 
while  it  is  most  uncommon  for  a  child  to  treat  a  parent  with 
unkindnessor  disrespect,  it  is  not  so  uncommon  to  reduce  them 
to  bondage.  Custom — in  all  lands,  the  law  of  laws — permits 
the  one,  but  will  not  tolerate  the  other,  and  pcrhaj  ting 

on  this  certainty  of  filial  treatment,  Anita  made  no  opposition 
to  being  "accommodated"  with  her  son.  That  is,  she  con- 
fessed before  the  Judge,  that  for  her  own  and  her  daughter's 


132  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

needful  clothing — and  the  like  matters — she  was  indebted  to 
her  son  Bias,  and  consented  to  serve  him  in  legal  peonage  for 
the  debt.  Don  Bias  permitted  his  peonized  mother  to  bring 
home  and  nurse  his  sister's  orphan,  and  when  a  year  or  two 
rolled  on,  and  its  brutal  father  took  another  wife  of  his  own 
mould,  there  seemed  no  other  refuge  left  open  to  the  little 
Margarita.  But  when  Don  Bias  died  suddenly  two  years  ago, 
the  sky  was  again  overcast.  In  the  division  of  the  estate  the 
peonized  Anita  became  the  personal  property  of  her  daughter- 
in-law,  and,  in  addition  to  a  severe  change  in  her  own  labors, 
she  was  told,  first  softly  and  indirectly,  but  at  last  with  stern 
distinctness,  that  Margarita,  now  approaching  her  seventh 
year,  must  find  a  new  home  or  be  "accommodated  "  with  a 
peon's  bonds.  The  widowed,  childless,  heart-broken  Anita 
resolved  to  come  to  me  for  aid.  The  unfeeling  father  of 
Margarita  is  now  a  ruined,  dissipated  wanderer — and  rumor 
says  a  pitiless  robber — about  Mier,  Comargo,  and  the  towns 
on  the  lower  Bravo.  I  was  encumbered  already  with  en- 
gagements beyond  my  strength,  but  it  was  hard  to  resist  the 
modest  yet  urgent  petition  of  this  sorrowful  woman.  She 
only  prayed  to  enter  as  a  servant  in  mine,  or  if  that  could  not 
be,  any  American  family  that  would  shelter  her  Margarita 
also,  and  bring  her  up  in  the  enlightened  customs  of  the  free 
American.  "  Let  me  become  your  peon,"  she  said,  "  and  I 
will  devote  to  your  service  my  body  and  blood,  but  open 
your  heart  to  this  poor  child."  Oh,  how  eloquently  did  she 
plead  for  that  helpless  one  ! 

I  explained,  what  she  partly  knew,  that  she  could  not 
enslave  herself  to  me,  as  it  is  a  form  of  servitude  not  recog- 
nized by  our  laws  ;  but  that  if  she  chose  to  remain  on  this 
side  of  the  river,  so  that  we  could  enforce  her  mistress  to 
accept  a  just  settlement  of  her  debt,  instead  of  the  long-drawn- 


ONIZINQ  A  MOTHER  133 

out  iniquity  of  two  hundred  dollars,  my  house  was  open  to 
hi  r,  and  we  irou]  I  could  be  done. 

••  But  I  have  promised  to  return  to  my  duties,  (mis  deberes,) 
if  I  cannot  pay  the  whole  cuenta." 

"Then  you  have  promised  away  every  chance  of  liberty, 
for  on  neither  side  of  the  ri?er  can  a  person  be  found  to 
advance  this  sum,  even  if  they  trusted,  as  1  would  like  t<>do, 
to  your  remaining  faithful  to  your  new  service,"  1  waa  c 
strained  to  reply.  I  felt  the  necessity  of  this  plain  speaking, 
it  is  a  false  charity  to  pay  to  any  grasping  master  these 
exaggerated  demands,  and  waste  on  one  object  that  which, 
if  properly  applied,  would  open  the  prison  doors  of  a  dozen 
peon  families.  If  they  can  get  a  just  balance  .-truck,  and  will 
,)  this  side  of  the  river  while  they  are  paying  it.  half  of  the 
peons  1  know  could,  with  reasonable  help  and  countenance, 
work  out  their  debt  in  a  year. 

"  But  tell  me  how  you  came  to  owe  your  son  so  large  a 
sum,"  I  continued. 

"It  was  not  a  large  sum,  only  twenty-seven  dollars  when 
my  son  '  accommodated  '  me." 

"  How  then  did  it  swell  to  two  hundred,  when  you  were 
working  all  the  time  ?"  I  knew  pretty  well  how  it  was  done, 
but  I  wished  to  hear  it  from  her  own  lips. 

"  By  putting  in  my  cuenta  the  sugar  allowed  for  Margarita's 
atole,  (meal  porridge,)  and  the  soap  for  our  clothes,  and  a 
wool  mattress  to  sleep  on,  and  for  meat,  and  medicine  some- 
times, and  for  all  we  wore,  and  for  two  blankets  and  BOme 
cotton  for  sheets,"  (sheets  and  a  mattress  are,  by  the  wav, 
most  unpeon  luxuries,)  "and  all  this  in  nine  years  made  a 
large  cuenta." 

"  Then  no  clothir  given  to  you  or  the  orphan  without 

putting  it  in  the  cuenta  ?" 

u  Nothing,  Sefiora  ;  but  then,  on  Sundays,  and  days  of 


134  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDE. 

permission,  I  embroidered  for  others,  and  earned  a  little 
money  to  buy  thi_  _  -  r  II  _  ita.  Embroidery  and  fine 
needle-work  was  my  deztino,  (allotted  occupation,)  until 
Since  I  have  suffered  much  pain  in  my  side,  and  feel 
an  occasional  cough,  I  have  been  taken  from  the  needle  and 
put  to  the  metate,  which  is  worse." 

There  was  a  gleam  of  explanation  in  this:  her  mistress1 
dau_  r  saw  the  consumption  was  stealing  upon  the  over- 
worked needle  woman,  and  she  was  -  to  the  metate,  or 
corn-grinder,  to  be  tormented  into  finding  another  buyer 
before  she  grew  a.     _         .     - 

I  think  such  a  dai;_  iter  d     s  not  deserve  that  vou  should 

— 

_     oack  at  all;  but  s  :-u  have  given  your  faith,  I  see  no 

other  way,"  I  was  forced,  most  unwillingly,  to  rep. 

The  enslaved  lady — for  lad]  was  in   •  graceful 

word  and  gesture — left  me  with  a  slow,  reluctant  heart.  I 
return  to  the  house  of  bondage,  and  before  a  way  could  be 
devised  to  snatch  her,  and  the  child  of  her  vearnincr  love,  from 
their  chains,  death,  the  pi:;      ;  angel,  w..       .  I  her  bonds. 
The  young  Margarita  is  now  enslaved  for  the  debt  char_ 

!  inst  her  grandmother,  and  thus  all  that  is  left  of  a  gallant 
Spanish  name  is  brought  within  the  inexorable  abasement  of 
peonage. 

Theorize  as  you  will,  your  own  heart  will  rebel  agai: 
Tour  conclusions,  if  you  affirm  that  slavery  is  not  most  griev- 
ous to  a  mind  and  spirit  born  and  trained  in  the  hopes  and 
expansion  of  a  better  life.  I  turn  back  always  in  the  com- 
parison to  these  facts,  and  think  that  wiser  pens  should  take 
up  the  text : — 

Twelve  millions  of  the  Red  Race  have  been  degraded,  ai 
are  dying  off,  by  the  slow  poison  of  peonage,  and  no  one  con- 
s,  no  one  instructs  the  feeble  half  that  remains  of  the  Na- 
tive American  stock.     Less  than  half  a  million  of  stupid  and 


BONA    UKFWHA.  135 

oiooa   Macks,  brought  from  Africa,  hive   become  th. 

millions  in  number,  and  a  vastly  improved  race,  even  in  the 
st  of  our  -.     Letters  and  the  arts  hare  t 

ferred  on  them,  they  have  been  aided  to  create  a  new  and 
flourishing  realm  in    their  benighted  fatherland,  and  emanci- 
ion  hovers  over  them  like  a  banner  of  promise.     Coloniza- 
tion opens   to  them  wealth,  country,  and  distinction,  and  all 
Americans — except  those  who  have  some  fanatical  uses  for 
them — cheer  them  helpfully  on  their  way.     Yet,  this  grow- 
.  thriving,  hopeful  black  race,  for  whom  reparation  is  shin- 
out  in  every  quarter;   who  have  their  rich  ancestral  con- 
tinent for  a  home  and  heritage,  finds  a  pitying  orator  on  every 
political  stump,  while  the  half-slaughtered  Red  Race,  to  whom 
remains  not  home,  refuge  or  country,  meets  no  glance  of  sym- 
;      hy  or  kindn- 

Oh  that  a  Presld-ntial  election  could  turn  on  some  Bhow 
of  justice  to  the  hunted  Red  man,  what  a  plenitude  of  gener- 
ous missions  would  put  forth  their  blossoms  !  What  a  chant 
of  tender  sympathy  would  chorus  through  the  land  !  What 
patterns  of  brotherly  love  we  would  all  be — if  it  would  elect 
a  candidate — until  after  election  ! 

DONA  REFUGIA, 

Anita,  the  well-born  and  pure-blooded  white  lady,  was 
not  alone  in  this  intense  desire  to  rescue  her  child  from  the 
thraldom  of  ignorant  peonage.  Dona  Refugia,  the  lovely 
widow  of  an  officer  in  the  Mexican  army,  requested  me  to  re- 
ceive herself  and  two  children,  a  bright  boy  of  fifteen,  and  a 
sprightly  girl  of  twelve,  in  my  family  to  do  the  work  of  the 
domestic  servants.  She  stipulated  that  the  work  should  be 
done,  and  well  done,  but  for  the  honor  of  her  husband's 
name  she  would  expect  the  children  and  herself  should  be 
treated  as  of  the  family.     This,  too,  I  had  to  decline,  for  I 


136  LIFE  ON  THE  L  'JUL Ell. 

could  not,  io  any  case,  displace  those  who  were  tried  and 
faithful  in  their  duties ;  yet,  when  I  heard,  six  months  after, 
that  evil  tongues  were  bus)'-  with  the  fame  of  this  still  young 
and  beautiful  woman,  I  was  fearful  that  I  had  fallen  short  of 
what  might  have  been  done  to  shield  and  sustain  a  lonely,  un- 
protected woman. 

Both  these  cases  were  of  white  women  cradled  in  prosperi- 
ty and  nurtured  in  elegance,  but  among  the  Indians,  back- 
ward and  reserved  as  they  are,  we  discover  rich  veins  of  am- 
bition, whenever  they  are  encouraged  to  unfold,  or  rather  to 
form,  hopes  of  a  manlier  destiny  than  peonage.  This  is  what 
people  deny  of  the  Red  Race  ;  but  have  these  loud-voiced 
skeptics  ever  made  the  trial  ?  My  own  experience  is  not  ex- 
tensive, it  only  amounts  to  the  study  of  those  who  have  come 
in  contact  with  me  as  our  own  servants,  those  of  our  friend-, 
and  the  Mexicans  we  encounter  in  travel.  Yet  it  is  sufficient 
for  my  conviction  that  the  Indian  is  more  susceptible  to 
mental  effort  than  the  African.  I  have  had  failures,  and  I 
have  had  success,  with  both  in  my  limited  range,  but  the 
most  cheering  success  has  certainly  been  with  the  Red  Race. 
Two  young  girls,  one  a  mulatto,  the  other  a  pure  Indian,  ap- 
plied to  me  to  teach  them  to  read.  They  had  an  idea  that  a 
book  was  a  mystery  they  could  soon  unlock,  if  one  who  had 
the  key  would  show  them  the  way.  It  was  a  sad  interruption 
to  my  idle  ways,  but  they  were  so  anxious  to  learn,  that  I 
received  them  into  my  Hbuse,  to  the  great  discomposure  of 
my  new  handmaiden  Jesusa.  There  was  a  pretence  of  as- 
sisting her  with  the  needle,  but  she  declared  they  only 
plagued  her  to  death.  In  about  two  months  they  began  to 
read,  and  understand  something  of  what  they  read,  when  my 
patience  gave  way,  and  they  both  were  sent  home,  prepared 
to  forget — or  improve  as  might  chance — all  they  had  learned. 
A  friend  said,  the  mulatto  would  soon  dismiss  all  thought  of 


AFRIi  AlrS  AMD  INDIANS,  137 

the  m;ut.)\  while  the  Indian  would  retain,  if  no  more,  all  she 
had  acquired,  with  the  usual  tenacity  of  her  race,  and  so  La- 
deed  it.  proved.  I  have  sometimes  seen  this  exactly  reversed, 
yet  in  ranging  back  over  my  field  of  observation,  the  balance 
is  largely  in  favor  of  the  Indian  capacity. 

A  FR  U  \  l  V.s  .  I XI)  IX  I)  I A  XS. 

So  while  we  are  ranging  the  world  to  find  something  as 
bad  as  our  Southern  slawry,  we  utterly  forget  that  Mexico, 
with  one  third  of  the  population  of  the  United  States,  has 
more  -millions  of  bondsmen  than  we  possess.     Of   the  two 
classes,  the  Africans   are  infinitely  the  best   cared  for   in  the 
matter  of  physical  comforts,  and  are  the  least  crushed  by  the 
deep  and  hopeless  sense  of  unjust  degradation.     AVhile  the 
Indian  pines  away  in  sadness  and  discontent,  tie'  I  Hack  laughs 
cheerily  through  his  existence.     His  light  heart   is  free  from 
those  biting  traditions  of  a  nobler  state  which  haunt  the  fallen 
white  and  the  enslaved  lied  man.    How  many  white  men  there 
are  in  the  bonds  of  vice,  who  sleep  every  night  in  the  mire  of 
abasement,  and  wake  every  morning  under  the  goad  of  that 
hard  task-master  Want — a  task-master  who  spares   his  serfs 
as  little,  and  who  drives  them,  as  the  statistics  of  civilizal 
show,  to  miserable  graves,  much   faster  than    the   slave  and 
peon  owners  do  theirs — we  will  not  compute,  but  when  mo 
and  emancipationists  are  busy  in  "freedom's  can.-',"    1. 
should  not  be  forgotten.      There  is  much  hereditary  bond 
in  this  class  of  bondsmen.     Tens  of  thousands  of  children 
cast  upon  earth  by  this  army  of   intern )  and  vicious  pa- 

rents, to  be  trampled  upon  and  crushed  into  early  graves  by 
the  hurrying  feet  of  their  (  hristian  brethren.      No  one   • 

ts  (hose  who  are  rushing  on  in  the   monomania  <  f  some 
one-idead  b  ■■   to  turn  from  their  path  to  Af] 

vlon,  or  China,  to  raise  up  the  dying  little  heathen  in  their 


!38  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

own  streets,  but  surely  there  should  be  a  juster  distribution 
of  alms  when  sane  Christians  convene  in  the  temple  of  truth. 

"When  I  venture  thus  to  petition  that  the  infant  heirs  of 
white  degradation,  and  the  helpless  children  of  Indian  bond- 
age, should  share  in  the  magnificent  outpourings  of  emanci- 
pating love,  let  it  not  be  perverted  into  a  wish  to  deprive  the 
exiled  African  of  his  portion  of  sympathy.  We  owe  him — 
and  in  the  march  of  the  age  it  will  come  to  him — instruction, 
freedom,  and  a  home  in  the  land  of  his  fathers.  This,  too,  we 
owe  to  the  plundered,  exiled,  and  half-slaughtered  Indian. 
Out  of  the  imperial  realms  and  countless  treasures  we  have 
robbed  from  him,  give  him  back  a  little  corner  for  home  and 
shelter,  a  small  mite  to  feed  and  comfort  the  feeble  remnant 
that  remains  to  him.  Let  the  annuities  which  he  is  now  en- 
couraged to  squander  in  spirituous  poisons  be  used  to  re- 
convert him  to  a  man.  So,  too,  of  the  African.  The  sums 
that  are  lavished  upon  two  or  three  doubtful  individuals 
would,  if  used  with  a  broader  wisdom,  build  up  a  town  of 
free  and  pleasant  homes,  and  convey  to  them  the  parents  of 
a  new  life  and  freedom-giving  colony.  It  is  well  to  liberate 
one  African  slave  ;  it  is  better  to  raise  a  hundred  to  the  ele- 
vation of  self-government,  and  make  of  them  a  beacon-light 
before  the  race. 

Here  on  the  Mexican  frontier  we  can  see  in  its  broadest 
lights  and  shadows,  the  course  of  these  unprepared,  undisci- 
plined races,  when  left  to  themselves.  Here,  the  hundreds 
of  runaway  slaves,  who  are  tempted  to  escape  from  Texas 
into  Mexico,  have  all  the  social  lights  and  honors  of  the  most 
esteemed  citizens.  His  joyous  hilarity  is  a  welcome  relief  to 
the  serious  Mexicans,  he  is  at  once  accepted  as  a* favorite,  an 
equal,  and  there  is  no  impediment  to  his  popularity  or  suc- 
cess, and  yet  by  far  the  greater  number  soon  get  "  accom- 
modated "  with  peon  bonds.     Many,  however,  of  the  young 


THE  COLORED  DON.  139 

men  of  mixed  blood,  who  have  well-trained  pertaps,  in 

the  household  of  their  masters,  Bettle  themselves  advanta 
ously,  many  in  tip  .  and  carry  their  honors  with 

high  dignity.     They  are  a  most  jocund,  |  os,  forgiving 

race,  and  many  amusing  stories  arc  told  of  their  ways. 


THE  COLORED  DOX 

An*  American  of  my  acquaintance  was  travelling  in  Mexico, 
and  as  he  was  walking  one  line  evening,  in  the  city  of  Mon- 
terey,  his  eve  was  attracted  by  the  comfortable,  self-satisfied 
air  of  a  gentleman,  slowly  walking  down  the  street  towards 
him,  swinging  as  he  went  an  enormous  kev.  A  second  look 
convinced  him  that  this  portly  by-holder  was  the  runaway 
cook  of  a  friend  in  southern  Texas,  so  he  accosted  him  with, 
"Ah,  Dan,  is  that  you?" 

"Don  Dionisio  de  Echavaria,  if  you  please,  sir,"  said  the 
cidevant  Dan,  with  a  courtly  low,  recognizing  at  the  same 
time  the  stranger. 

"  Well,  Don  Dionisio  be  it  then,"  said  the  accommodating 
traveller.  "  But  how  did  you  come  by  such  a  fine  name, 
B  HorDon?" 

"  Oh,  T  did  my  father-in-law,  the  judge,  the  honor  to  adopt 
his,  as  mine  did  not  suit  me.  It  was  only  fit  for  a  plantation 
niffger/'  said  Don  Dionisio,  with  an  air  of  ineffable  disgust. 

"  But  what  in  the  name  of  wonder  arc  you  doing  with  that 
ponderous  key,  Don  Dionisio?  You  are  not  the  keeper  of  the 
city  prison,  are  you  ?" 

'•  No,  it  is  the  key  of  my  warehouse,"  said  the  Don,  with 
dignity, — his  warehouse  was  garnished  with  about  ten  dol- 
lar-' worth  of  soap,  candle,  BUgar,  and  cigaritos,  be  it  ob- 
served,— <<  I  cannot  find  a  confidential  clerk  among  these  lazy 


140  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

Mexicans,"  continued  the  magistrate's  scn-in-.aw,  "  and  I  am 
obliged  to  take  in  my  own  charge  the  key." 

"You  want  a  clerk,  Dan — I  beg  pardon,  Don  Dionisio?" 
inquired  the  traveller,  with  a  serious  face.  "Well,  suppose 
you  take  me  *?  But,  first,  what  about  the  treatment  and 
salary  ?" 

"  As  to  the  salary,"  said  Don  Dionisio,  a  little  disconcerted, 
"we  must  talk  of  that  afterwards,  when  we  see  how  you 
answer,  but  as  for  the  treatment,  upon  the  honor  of  a  gentle- 
man, you  shall  fare  like  myself,  with  a  place  at  my  own  table. 
My  lady  will  receive  you  as  if  you  were  my  own  brother." 

"Excellent,  I  will  see  you  to-morrow,  Dan — ten  thousand 
pardons — Don  Dionisio,  but  if  I  should  not  conclude  to  stay 
here,  have  you  no  message  to  send  to  your  old  home  ?" 

"  Give  my  respects  to  the  old  gentleman,  my  uncle,"  (so 
it  pleased  the  Don  to  designate  his  former  master,)  "  and  tell 
them  all  that  if  they  come  this  way  my  house  is  open  to 
them.      But  how  is  my  old  friend,  Gen.  H.  ?" 

"  Very  well,  indeed,  and  he  has  become  as  steady  as  a 
church." 

"  I  am  very  glad  to  hear  it.  I  used  to  be  ashamed  of  his 
company,  sometimes,  but  if  he  is  so  much  improved,  I  would 
like  to  take  him  by  the  hand." 

"I  thank  you  in  his  name.  Goodbye."  And  so  they 
parted,  not  to  meet  again ;  but  this  colored  man,  with  all  his 
little  harmless  pomposit}',  has  more  than  once  rendered  kind 
and  efficient  service  to  Americans. 

There  are  not  many  colored  persons,  however,  who  pros- 
per in  this  stricken  and  paralyzed  country  ;  it  only  yields  its 
latent  treasures  to  the  energetic  and  intelligent  grasp  of  the 
white  man.  Yet  this  equality  of  caste  and  color  is  a  great 
allurement  to  the  Africans  on  her  bolder,  and  it  is  also  the 
absolute  guarantee   against   a   hasty   consummation  of   that 


INDIAN    FOR  141 

aded  annexation — and  the  still  mo  wful  chimera  of 
Slavery  Extension — which,  like  the  black  shadow  on  the 
Hartii  mountains,  overshadows  and  terrifies  bo  many  believing 
spirits. 

INDIAN  ion  a  vs. 

Some  idea  of  the  make  and  character  of  the  country  mus1 
1).'  borne  in  mind,  in  order  to  understand  the  entire  absence 
of  Bystem  and  forecast  in  the  arrangements  for  border  de 
fence.  The  Indians  have  no  longer  homes  or  families  in  the 
wide  band  of  unsettled  country  that  borders  the  whole  length 
of  the  navigable  current  of  the  Rio  J3ravo  down  to  its  mouth 
— for  Laredo  and  the  few  towns  that  at  far  intervals  dot  the 
lower  part  of  its  course  have  no  settlements  back  of  them — 
and  all  this  range  of  a  thousand  miles  in  length,  from   I 

st  back,  is  a  field  for  their  sudden  forays.  They  pour  down 
from  their  distant  fastnesses,  far  beyond  Eagle  Pass,  in  par 
of  from  a  dozen  up  to  some  hundred  warriors,  mounted  on  the 
fleetest  of  their  desert  steeds,  and  free  from  every  incum- 
brance but  their  light  trappings  for  war  or  the  chase.  They 
had  been  driven  by  the  Texans  beyond  this  regr  «,  as  a  place 
of  encampment  with  their  women  and  children,  before  the  an- 
nexation, and  only  revisit  it  at  intervals  to  plunder  and  destroy 
the  Texan  settlers.  The  old  Texan  style  of  border  defence  was 
exceedingly  simple  and  effectual.     They  gathered  at  the  first 

e  of  danger — for  every  colonist  had  something  dear  to  pro- 
tect, and  no  means  of  protection  except  what  lay  in  his  own 
stout  arm  and  sure  ritle — and  they  all  went  on  the  trail  of 
the  savage  with  the  single  and  direct  intent  to  exterminate 
him  wherever  found.  As  the  outer  edge  of  settl 
pressed  deeper  and  deeper  into  the  wilderness,  and  their 
herds  and  flocks— the  chief  wealth  of  these  frontier  farms — 


142  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER.      _ 

multiplied  around  them,  they  became  a  perpetual  fountain  of 
supply  to  these  roving  Indians.  They  rush  down  so  sudden- 
ly upon  their  prey,  and  disappear  with  it  so  rapidly,  that  it 
requires  an  alert,  light-armed,  experienced  woodsman,  like 
themselves,  to  pursue  them  with  any  hope  of  success.  Judge, 
then,  of  the  sagacity  of  the  Solomons  at  Washington  in  send- 
ing infantry  to  suppress  these  wild  horsemen  of  the  wilder- 
ness !  On  one  occasion  they  made  such  havoc  of  life  and 
property  all  around  the  towns  and  posts  low  down  the  river, 
that  the  commanding  officer  sent  forth  detachments  in  wagons 
in  the  hope  of  cutting  off  some  of  their  scattering  parties,  and 
rescuing  the  women  and  children  the  savages  had  captured. 
It  was  a  forlorn  hope  ;  but  what  brave  and  feeling  man  could 
omit  to  do  whatever  he  could,  however  faint  the  probability 
in  its  favor,  to  save  a  score  of  helpless  beings  from  such  a 
fate  ?  If  his  efforts  were  insufficient,  let  the  blame  rest  with 
those  who  were  so  reckless  of  border  wants  as  to  provide  no 
better  means  for  its  defence.  Unless  the  Indians  were  polite 
enough  to  come  up  to  the  soldiers'  muskets  and  ask  to  be 
shot,  I  do  not  see  how  infantry  were  to  hurt  them.  With  a 
suitable  mounted  force  to  range  along  the  line  and  interpose 
an  ever  vigiu. >f  barrier  to  incursive  parties,  an  adequate  in- 
fantry force  to  maintain  the  fixed  posts  that  flanked  their 
operations  would  be  of  effective  service.  Rangers  are  best 
for  out-service,  for  scout  and  pursuit,  for  courier  and  escort 
necessities,  and  for  whatever  offers  in  which  quick  action  in 
the  wilderness  is  the  thing  most  specially  desirable,  but  in 
posts  of  concentration  and  supply,  the  order  and  discipline  of 
the  regular  army  becomes  of  great  value.  The  more  so,  as 
on  a  frontier  line  delicate  cases  of  international  right  and 
courtesy  will  occur,  in  which  the  authority  and  responsibility 
of  the  officer  commanding  ou  our  side  should  be  of  the  best 
recognized  character. 


WILD   CATS  POLICY.  143 

In  whom,  then,  lies  this  default  of  tit  and  adequate  protec- 
tion for  this  blood-stained  frontier?  Is  it  in  Congress,  in 
not  providing  the  means;  or  in  the  Cabinet,  in  not  using 
them  with  sounder  wisdom  ?  The  useless,  and  forever  use- 
bip-of-war  Pennsylvania,  lias  cost  more  money  than  is 
needed  to  open  and  defend  a  mail  route  from  the  Gulf  to 
California,  and  such  a  route  would  soon  dot  its  whole  course 
with  a  line  of  settlements  competent  for  their  own  protection. 

WILD  CAT'S  POLICY. 

The  Mexican  authorities  found  no  impediments  in  the  way 
of  making  a  firm  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  Seminoles.     A 
beautiful  location  about  thirty  miles  above   Eagle  Pass   was 
assigned  to  his  people,  after  converting  them  one  and  all  into 
full  and  entire  citizens  of  the  "golden  republic,''  by  a  quick, 
simple,  and  satisfactory  process  of  naturalization  rather  pecu- 
liar to  Mexico.     Even  the   black   slaves  among  them — and 
Wild  Cat  himself  owns  several — were  "  accommodated  '    to 
the  Mexican  system  of  servitude  under  all  the  necessary  legal 
forms,  though  a  very  old  woman  among  them  told  me  the  only 
difference  she  ever  found  between  being  a  slave  and  a  peon, 
was  in  the  harder  way  they  had  of  grinding  corn  in  Mexico, 
and  that  meat  seemed  scarcer.     The  Chief,  and  his  cousin,  the 
Bear,  were  made  Judge  and  Sheriff  of  the  new  municipality. 
AVild  Cat  also  took  rank  and  pay — or  the  promise  thereof — 
as   an   officer  of  the  Mexican   army  ;  so,  as   the  colonel  and 
magistrate  of  a  partido  of  the  Mexican  republic,  he  had  a 
double  stake  in  its  glory.     Nevertheless,  whether  by  force  of 
habit  or  sound  judgment,  his   predilections  were  evidently 
with  the  Americans,     lie  kept  his  hunting  camp  as  near  our 
settlement  as  he  could,  ranged  in  amity  the  passes  that  cover- 
ed   it,  and  in  many  ways  was  a  willing  and  useful  guard 


144  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

against  the  too  near  approaches  of   the  common   foe,    the 
savage  Camanches. 

One  fine  morning  Wild  Cat  drew  up  unexpectedly  at  our 
door,  with  only  his  two  interpreters  and  an  inferior  servant 
in  attendance — a  small  and  confidential  train  for  a  chief  who 
delights  to  ride  forth  with  a  strong  display  of  armed  warriors 
and  captive  servants.  It  was  a  quiet  business  call,  but  bore 
as  plainly  ancl  distinctly  on  the  great  plan  of  his  life,  as 
these  dark  untrustinGf  Indians  ever  show  forth  their  thoughts. 
He  wishes  to  become  the  accepted  soldier  and  agent  of  the 
United  States,  and  win  renown  and  influence  by  taming  down 
the  hostile  and  troublesome  border  Indians  to  keep  peace 
with  the  whites.  To  do  this,  and  become  in  our  eyes  and 
theirs  the  foremost  man  of  the  Red  Race,  it  is  as  necessary 
to  chastise  and  subdue  the  refractory  as  it  is  to  win  over  and 
harmonize  the  willing  tribes.  He  had  but  lately  returned 
from  one  of  those  long  and  inexplicable  trips,  which  unques- 
tionably have  reference  to  the  grand  object  of  his  ambition, 
and  he  looks  wearied  and  care-worn.  His  dress  was  unusual- 
ly plain  and  travel-soiled,  and  altogether  there  was  some- 
thing exceedingly  stern  and  unsati>fied  in  his  air  ;  but  it 
might  be  only  that  he  was  not  well  content  with  the  summons 
from  his  military  superior  which  he  met  on  his  arrival  home. 
His  orders  were  peremptory,  to  muster  all  his  followers  and 
allies,  and  move  with  all  his  force  down  the  river  to  attack 
the  insurgent — Carvajal. 

At  the  first  glance,  Wild  Cat  might  have  passed  for  a  white 
borderer  arrayed  for  a  long  hunting  expedition,  but  a  second 
look  revealed  many  little  Indian  peculiarities.  He  wore  a  shirt 
of  blue  printed  cotton,  and  overalls  of  deerskin,  dressed  to  a 
dark  color,  and  fringed  neatly  down  the  seams — probably  the 
work  of  that  favorite  wife,  whose  name  he  suffers  no  one  to 
pronounce  but  himself,  and  who  is  only  spoken  of  in  the  tribe 


WILD    CATS  POLICY.  145 

as  the  Chief's  Companion.     A  crescent-shaped  silver  medal 
decorated  his  breast,  and  a  collar  of  gay  bead-work  encircled 
his  neck.     All  the  party  WOK  turbans  of  bright-colored  ker- 
chiefs wreathed  around  their  brows,  in  a  style  that  would  sit 
with  legitimate  grace  on  the  brow  of  an  Arab.     And  strange 
to  say,  one  of  his  interpreters  was  an  Arab.     lie  was  a  tall, 
Btately,  self-possessed  being,  with  the  aquiline  features  and 
round  glittering  eye  of  the  desert-born.     They  called  him  a 
Moor,  but  he  was  really  an  Arab,  from  the  Asiatic  side  of  the 
Red  Sea,     lie  had  been  decoyed  on  board  a  Spanish  trader, 
and  borne  away  to  slavery  in  Cuba.     He  was  in  Cuba  long 
enough  to  acquire  so  much  Spanish  as  served  to  make  him 
a  fair  interpreter  for  the  Seminole  chiefs,  when  he  escaped 
across  the  dividing  straits  and   sought  a  refuse  amono-  the 
Florida    Indians.      The    other   interpreter   was    our   famous 
Gopher  John,  a  full-blooded  negro,  whose  immediate  parents 
were  from  Africa.     John,  or  as  the  Lipans  call  him,  "Laugh- 
ing Dog,"  is,  in  all    his  ways,  true  to   the  records  of  three 
thousand  years  of  dependent  servitude.     He  is  pliant,  docile, 
heedless  of  race   or  nationality,  and  only  intent  to  serve  his 
chief  in  the  way  he  is  most  pleased  to  be  served,  yet  no 
coward  withal,  and  as  generous  and  light-hearted  as  he  is 
thoughtless  of  the  future.      The  Arab,  on  the  contrary,  bore 
himself  as  if  he  felt  the  pride  of  his  ancient  nobility  of  thirty- 
five  centuries  of  warlike   self-sovereignty  could   not  be  torn 
from  him  by  any  mortal  robber.     As  they  placed  themselves 
by  the  side  of  the  Indian  chief  it  was  impossible   not  to  bo 
struck  with  the  remarkable  coincidence.      Here,  on  this  re- 
mote frontier  line,  the   types  of  the   three  races  of  men  so 
hardly   pr<     <  d    by   the   relentless,  all-grasping  whites,  were 
confronted  by  one  of  the  conquering  race,  and  on  a  mission, 
too,  that  had  its  rise  in,  and  avouched  for,  his  supremacy.  In 
that  small  room  plundered  Asia,  enslaved  Africa,  and  mar- 
7 


146  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

tyred  America,  were  ench  represented  in  blood,  in  character, 
and  in  suffering  by  a  lineal  son ;  and  to  make  the  meeting  as 
complete  as  it  was  extraordinary,  the  fourth  man  of  this  sin- 
gular convocation  was  of  that  haughty  Norman  stock  which 
for  a  thousand  years  has  filled  or  shaken  the  thrones  of  Europe, 
and  which  erases,  with  the  point  of  the  sword,  the  laws  of 
every  nation  it  enters,  to  write  its  own  in  their  stead. 

Yet  these  four  men  never  thought  of  it  at  all,  or  only  thought 
of  it  as  an  inevitable  and  irresistible  destiny,  as  they  calmly  dis- 
cussed how  best  to  subdue  the  restless  Indian  tribes  who  still 
roam  at  will  in  what  we  have  left  them  of  their  ancient  herit- 
age ;  how  to  quell  the  fierce  insubordinates,  who  are  so  slow 
to  learn  that  the  whites  have  a  stronger  title  than  themselves 
to  the  huntino-s-irrounds  of  their  fathers ;  how  to  save  from 
titter  destruction  those  who  had  been  subdued,  and  were  wil- 
ling to  live  in  peaceful  submission  if  the  United  States  would 
but  secure  to  them  a  City  of  Refuge.     It  is  to  be  regretted 
for  the  Red  man's  sake,  as  well  as  our  own,  that  we  cannot 
give  permanent  homes,  present  support,  and  eventual  civiliza- 
tion, to  the  suffering  and  friendly  tribes  on  the  frontier,  and 
particularly  to  Wild  Cat  and  his  band.     It  is  entirely  in  the 
power  of  our  Government  to  make  this  able  chief  an  instru- 
ment for  good  or  evil  service,  for  his  restless  ambition  and 
versatile  talents  must  be  employed,  and  in  his  fate  and  plans 
there  is  now  a  pause  for  breath  and  decision  which  a  bold, 
prompt  policy,  would  not  fail  to  seize  and  turn  to  the  right 
account.     Shall  this  untamed  tiger  of  the  desert  make  his 
spring  on  us,  or  on  the  savage  tribes  ?     They  are  his  enemies 
as  they  are  ours,  and  if  we  but  give  him  easy  scope  and  fair 
encouragement,  he  will  bound    on    them  teeth  and  claws. 
His   pride  of  rule  and  his  savage  fame  are  the  breath  of  his 
nostrils,  he  lives  but  to  win  command,  and  would  freely  die  to 
have  it  said  in  his  death  chant,  that  he  was  the  highest  chief 


SLAUGHTERED  HERDS.  147 

of  a  hundred  tribes.  If  the  whites  will  open  to  him  a  path- 
way to  renown  by  sending  him  against  the  hostile  tribes,  lit) 
will  do  their  work  better  than  half  a  dozen  regiments.  If 
they  shut  the  door  upon  him,  then  he  -will  continue  his  plans 
of  combination,  and  strive  to  pour  out  upon  this  border  a  fiery 
torrent  of  desolation.  Eagle  Pass  nestles  safely  in  its  nook, 
and  lias  less  to  fear  than  the  richer  settlements  that  spur  out 
and  fringe  the  edge  of  the  cultivated  country,  but  nowhere 
are  flocks  and  herds  secure  in  an  open  district  of  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  wide  by  fifteen  hundred  long  on  this  frontier. 
Yet  Wild  Cat,  with  a  regiment  of  dragoons  and  a  company 
or  two  of  mounted  Texan  riflemen,  would  sweep  this  region 
clean  in  a  year,  and  leave  it  as  dainty  and  secure  as  the  Cap- 
itol grounds. 

SLAUGHTERED  HERDS. 

At  the  call  of  his  commanding  officer  the  Seminole  chief 
withdrew  from  our  range  and  went  down  the  country  to  take 
the  part  that  became  a  Mexican  dignitary  of  his  rank,  in  the* 
war  against  Carvajal.     Some  of  the  Americans  call  it  "  Car- 
vajnl's  calico  war,"  the  question  in  issue  being,  as  they  averred,'^ 
whether  he  should  pay,  or  escape  paying,  the  duties  on  sundry 
bales  of  cotton  goods.     It  may  be  so,  for  it  too  often  happ< 
with  Mexican  revolutions  and  American  elections,  that  the 
spoils  is  the  only  principle  at  stake,  and  in  proportion  to  tin  ir 
value  is  the  vehemence  of  the  contest.     The  Camanches  con- 
duct their  wars  on  the  same  plan,  only  that  they  are  too  igno- 
rant  to  dress  up  their  motives  with  such    fine  words    ami 
plausible  excuses  as  we  do,  and  in  sheer  pov<  f  speech  they 

are  forced  to  tell  out  the  story  and  say  their  object  is  plunder, 
their  excuse  hunger  and  necessity.  We  have  driven  them 
back,  and  fa?  thee*  back,  from  the  rich  pastures  and  wooded 


148  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

vales  of  their  old  inheritance,  and  when  the  grass  fails  in  the 
stony  defiles  and  parched  mountain  sides  of  their  barren  land 
of  refuge,  they  must  pour  down  upon  us  who  have  possessed 
ourselves  of  their  ancient  camp  fires,  and  filled  their  hunting 
grounds  with  our  herds, 

"  And  from  the  robber  rend  the  prey." 

We  who  represent  the  victorious  and  usurping  race,  must,  as 
heirs  and  sharers  in  the  common  deed,  take  with  it  our  por- 
tion of  the  consequences.  We  must  have  the  justice  to  feed  and 
civilize  these  famishing  outlaws,  or  we  must  have  the  hardi- 
hood to  exterminate  them.  In  recordinp;  some  little  of  the 
blood-thirsty  work  they  perpetrated  all  around  us,  I  must 
also  record  my  painful  conviction  that,  according  to  their  light 
and  the  measure  of  their  provocations,  their  sin  of  blood  is  not 
so  heavy  as  ours.  Out  of  the  millions  upon  millions  of  reve- 
nue derived  from' the  domain  we  rifled  from  them  under  the 
plea — which  would  be  valid  enough  if  we  urged  it  more 
honestly — that  we  give  it  to  humanity  and  civilization,  how 
many  Indians  have  we  rescued  from  barbarism  ?  how  many 
dollars  have  we  expended  to  fit  them  for  or  place  them  in 
Christian  homes  ?  We  have  professed  to  make  treaties  and 
pay  the  Red  man  with  Pharisee  exactitude,  the  full  price  and 
value  of  his  destroyed  independence — but  in  what  wholesome 
coin  ?  Powder  and  rum — murder  and  suicide — this  is  what 
enlightened  Christianity  gives  him  back  for  the  matchless  em- 
pire bequeathed  to  him  by  a  long  line  of  the  free  lords  of 
the  forest. 

We  all  need  Christian  instruction,  whether  in  the  city  or 
wilderness,  but  most  out  here.  We  have  had  but  one  visit 
from  a  clergyman  in  two  years,  and  the  devoted  Odin,  bishop 
of  Texas,  made  a  long  and  trying  journey  to  see  us,  and  if 
possible,  open  a  way  for  a  church  and  school  at  Eagle  Pass. 


SLAUQHTL  UER1  149 

lit' dwelt  much  ;n  this  rule,  "Do  unto  others  even  as  ye 

would  have  others  do  onto  you."     This  was  a  part  of  his 

chings,  but  it  is  •  doctrine,  and  would  be  a  curiously 

perplexing  practice  for  American  Christians.     It  may  be  a 

line  stolen  from  some  old  pagan  after  all,  for  Bishop  Odin  is 
a  Catholic,  and  Catholics  are  said  to  be  idolaters;  and  taking 
unfair  advantage  of  our  great  distance  from  proper  instruc- 
tion, they  have  passed  it  off  on  our  innocence  as  a  Christian 
precept.  If  it  is  in  the  sacred  writings,  it  is  to  be  feared  that 
our  Cabinet  never  read  the  Bible. 

After  Wild  Cat  and  his  rangers  departed  the  hostile  In- 
dians pressed  closer  down  to  our  homesteads,  and  I  was 
forced  to  narrow  down  to  closer  limits  my  free  and  delightful 
rides  over  the  wild  and  boundless  prairie.  It  spoiled  their 
.  when  the  order  to  saddle  my  pony  inevitably  brought 
with  it  the  rattle  of  preparation  fur  armed  attendance  and  a 
close  Bcrutiny  into  the  health  of  six-shooters. 

Set  all  this  taught  me  to  coniide  in  my  household.  There 
was  not  a  coward  in  it,  not  even  my  coquettish  young  maid 
Jesusa,  Avhohad  set  our  combustible-hearted  Victor  distracted, 
and  made  a  bashful  lamb  of  our  sedate  and  dignified  mayor- 
domo,  Reyna.  One  day,  in  the  temporary  absence  of  my  hus- 
band, we  were  all  collected  on  the  highest  part  of  the  house, 
to  watch  the  antics  of  a  party  of  Indians,  on  the  opposite 
bank  of  the  river.  They  had  rained  down  suddenly,  from  no 
one  knew  where,  on  the  rancho  of  Don  Felipe  Garcia,  and  ap- 
peared to  enjoy  amazingly  the  pastime  of  lancing  some  of  his 
finest  cows,  that,  unluckily  for  themselves  and  their  master, 
happened  to  be  in  the  corral.  There  would  be  no  end  to  the 
confusion  >uch  a  scene  would  create  in  a  New  England  fami- 
ly, fresh  from  the  calm  .shadow  of  the  village  church  :  there  was 
not  a  troubled  eye  or  quivering  lip  in  the  whole  of  that  at- 
tentive circle.     Mexicans,  of  the  peon  class,  are  neglected 


150  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

children,  and  often  behave  badly  in  a  strait  from  want  of  self- 
confidence  or  good  leaders,  but  cowards  they  are  not.  I 
have  always  found  them  collected  and  resolute,  and  in  this 
case,  being  willing  to  try — for  on  the  frontier  it  imports  one 
to  know — the  mettle  of  our  servants,  I  asked  Guillermo,  the 
mason,  and  the  oldest  of  them,  if  he  did  not  think  it  would 
be  well  to  arm  our  men  and  go  to  the  aid  of  Don  Felipe*s 
rancheros. 

"If  you  command  it  we  are  ready,  sefiora,"  was  the  cool 
and  prompt  reply.  I  remained  a  little  longer,  and  when  I 
went  down  they  were  all  getting  their  guns  loaded  ;  for,  with 
thoroughly  Indian  improvidence,  these  Mexicans,  who  are 
rarely  without  a  gun  about  them,  almost  never  have  it  ready 
for  use.  In  this  is  the  vast  superiority  of  the  American  over 
the  Mexican  frontiersman  :  his  horse  and  his  arms  are  the 
best  he  can  get,  and  he  attends  to  their  condition  with  vigi- 
lant care.  He  feels  that  he  is  ready  to  fight  or  flee  to  the 
best  advantage ;  and  is  conscious  that  the  wild  Indian  knows 
him  for  a  strong  and  watchful  adversary — and  this  alone 
makes  odds  in  his  favor.  Thus  the  small  American  popula- 
tion of  Eagle  Pass,  and  the  reputation  of  a  United  States 
post  at  Fort  Duncan,  commanded  a  distance  and  respect  from 
the  hostile  Indians,  which  its  actual  strength  by  no  means 
entitled  it  to,  and  which  the  same  force  of  Mexicans  would 
not  inspire.  Whether  the  Indians  on  the  opposite  bank  were 
moved  by  any  consideration  of  the  presence  of  the  two  or 
three  houses  on  our  side,  or  whether  they  refrained  in  pure 
good  nature  from  further  mischief,  they  confined,  on  that  oc- 
casion, their  slaughter  to  the  cattle,  and  retired  before  we 
had  decided  that  it  was  necessary  or  advisable  to  interfere, 
and  for  some  time  we  heard  no  more  of  Indian  depredations. 

The  inquiry  naturally  and  necessarily  occurs  to  every  one 
who  knows  we  devote  twenty  millions  a-year  to  the  military 


SLA  UQHTSREL  HERDK  \  5 r 

and  naval  service,  M  Why  is  not  the  force  at  Fort  Duncan 
called  out  to  drive  back  to  their  hills  these  marauding  In- 
dians ?"  But,  if  it  has  not  been  said  before,  we  will 
—or  if  it  has  been  said,  it  is  still  worth  repeating— that  there 
Ctive  force  at  Fort  Duncan,  not  even  enough  for 
escort  duty.  Tl  i  something  like  thirty  infantry  soldi  , 
00  an  average,  for  garrison  duty,  and  if  four  or  five  of  tl 
were  detailed — which  is  the  most  that  could  be  spared,  un- 

a  the  ladies  of  Eagle  Pas.-  were  to  charge  themselves  with 
the  care  of  the  post  in  the  absence  of  its  regular  defenders — 
to  go  iu  pursuit  of  the  Indians,  they  would  have  to  go  on 
foot.  The  unpolished  savages  never  take  the  trouble  to  v. 
long  for  such  visitors  ;  and  unless  they  did  wait  for  them  with 
exemplary  patience,  how  is  a  squad  of  infantry  to  overtake 
well-mounted  Indians? 

In  the  month  of  December,  1851,  not  less  than  six  or 
seven  hundred  head  of  horses,  stolen  from  Mexico,  were 
passed  over  the  Bravo,  within  a  dozen  miles  of  Fort  Duncan. 
The  Mexican  lowers  will  say  there  were  as  many  thousands, 
and  demand  indemnity  for  them  from  our  government ;  and 
some  member  of  the  Cabinet  will  consider  the  law,  the  per 
eentage,  and  the  Galphin  precedent,  and  arrange  a  draft  on 
the  treasury.  Don  Juan  Fernandez,  who  brought  over  a  1 
of  three  hundred  head  of  fine  cattle  to  place  them  under  the 
protection  of  our  flag  and  the  military  post  of  Fort  Duncan, 
was  informed,  early  in  December,  that  a  band  of  Indians, 
with  a  large  train  of  horses,  were  crossing  the  Bravo  in  the 
direction  of  his  herd.  Information  was  sent  to  the  fort,  but 
there  were  no  horses  to  make  pursuit.  Don  Juan  then  took 
the  trail,  with  one  American  gentleman,  and  traced  their 
crossing  place  and  line  of  march  before  he  slept.  After 
ascertaining  that  our  shepherd's  corral  hid  escaped  their  no- 
tice, the  two  gentlemen  camped  there  for  the  night,  and  re- 


152  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

sumed  the  trail  with  the  dawning.  A  few  miles  on  they 
came  upon  the  night-fires — not  yet  cold — of  the  Indians ; 
and  there,  in  every  direction,  Don  Juan  found  his  cattle  ly- 
ing about,  perforated  with  lances  and  arrows.  "While  he  was 
counting  them,  and  noting  how  many,  or  if  all,  bore  his 
brand,  he  heard  the  drums  of  Fort  Duncan  beat  their  morn- 
ing call.  A  day  or  two  after,  we  rode  down  to  look  at  this 
field  of  wanton  slaughter.  In  every  direction  there  were 
dark  path-like  streaks  of  dried  blood,  where  the  poor  ani- 
mals, maddened  with  the  pain  of  the  arrows  that  were  sent 
tearing  and  quivering  through  them  in  ferocious  pastime, 
had  rushed  hither  and  thither  through  the  chapparal,  until 
they  fell  down  in  the  death  agony.  I  picked  up  some  ar- 
rows, feathered  in  three  colors,  and  fashioned  so  as  to  indi- 
cate the  tribe,  and  kept  them — a  lasting  memento  of  the 
wise  distribution  of  our  means  of  border  defence.  A  Ca- 
manche  warrior  will  send  one  of  those  arrows  through  a 
horse,  and  with  little  less  precision  and  force  than  a  rifle  ball. 
They  had  taken  their  own  time  and  way  with  Don  Juan's 
herds  ;  and,  as  he  rightly  thought,  and  all  of  us  well  knew, 
this  destruction  of  his  property  was  owing  to  the  unpardon- 
able ignorance  or  neglect  of  our  officials  somewhere  :  he  laid 
his  case  before  the  Senate,  and  demanded  some  notice  of  the 
state  of  this  suffering  border.  There  is  no  excuse  for  this ; 
there  is  the  will  and  the  means  on  the  part  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  to  protect  efficiently  this  whole  line,  but  their 
servants  will  not  be  vigilant  in  their  duty.  They  do  not  inform 
themselves  sufficiently  at  "Washington  of  the  nature  and  re- 
sources of  the  country,  and  are  generally  ignorant,  to  an  in- 
credible extent,  of  the  data  on  which  to  found  any  system  of 
border  defence,  and  consequently  none  exists.  This  seems  an 
incredible  summing  up  of  all  the  expenditure  and  parade  of 
our  frontier  establishment ;  but  it  is  unhappily  strictly,  unde- 


LYNCH  LAW.  153 

niably,  and  disgracefully  true,  that  on  the  Rio  Bravo  fron- 
tier there  is  do  plan  of  defence— none  whs 
Supplies  ••  wander  about  indefinitel] ,  ws  used 
iy  of  General  H         q's  administration,     i         are  sc 
\  in  aimless  confusion,  where  i            l  or  the  caprice  of  an 
officer  placed  them,  without  suitable  c          .ion  ol  ual 
.    without    communication    with    the    sea,    _          illy 
•st  where  there  is  nothing  to  defend,  and  always  weak- 
est where  the  most  is  in  peril. 

LYNCH  LAW. 

There  is  one  feature  of  border  life  which  never  fails  to  strike 
with  horror  those   who  live  calmly  and  securely  under  the 
genial  protection  of  a  well-established  community.     I  mean 
that  state  of  things  in  which,  in  the  absence  or  nullity  of  the 
legal  machinery  of  justice,  society — feeble,  crude  and  suspi- 
cious— returns  to  the  first  elen  and  m  If  law- 
giver,   judge,  and   whatever    else    it  deems  essential   to   its 
safety.     It  is  the  stern  primary  law  of  self-}  .  —this 
border  custom  of  bringing  criminals  before  the  whole  bodjr 
of  citizens  for  judgment — from  which  men  sitting  beside  law- 
guarded  hearths  recoil  in  dismay,  and  fa          _  only  its  cruel 
side,  stigmatize    as    the    utterly  unpardonable   Lynch  Law. 
Most  true,  it  is,  that   nothing  but  urgent  and   deplorable   ne- 
eessity  will  drive  a  just  and  merciful  man  to  participate  in  its 
tribunals,  but  it  is  not  less  true  that  in  frontier  settlements,  if 
the  fear  of  its  quick  vengeance  did  not  overawe  the  wicked, 
the  innocent  and   peaceful   would  be   in  hourly   danger   of 
wrong  and  outrage.     We  have  escaped — partly  through  the 
■e  of  Fort  Duncan,  but  more  through  the  orderly 
charac          our  settlers— the  terribl          nple  of  a  court  of 
lynchers,  yet  I  trembled  not  long  since  at  the  ominous  sha- 


15-1  LIFE  ON  THE  BOEDEF. 

dow  of  such  a  proceeding.  Happily,  the  accused  man  proved 
to  be  innocent,  and  the  guilty  one  fled  these  precincts.  Since 
then  formal  writs  of  election  have  been  issued,  and  in  the  re- 
gular course  we  are  supplied  with  a  magistrate. 

We  had  already  witnessed  (or  rather  suspected)  a  strong 
case  of  individual  retribution,  the  irregular  personal  vindica- 
tion, by  the  sufferer,  of  that  wild  justice  of  redress  that  every 
human  bosom  believes  in,  and  nourishes,  until  it  is  taught  to 
forgive  by  religion,  or  to  wait  for  revenge  by  the  law.  This 
individual  action  of  revenge  is  a  step — a  long  and  dangerous 
step — worse  than  Lynch  law,  just  as  lynching  judgments  are 
a  step  worse  than  the  guarded  measures  of  strictly  legal  ven- 
geance. The  one-man  court,  the  settlers'  court,  and  the  sa- 
cred, decorous,  law-attended  court  of  the  well-regulated  com- 
munity, have  each  a  certain  currency  and  respect  in  border 
opinion,  as  the  inevitable,  incurable,  and  not  altogether  dis- 
similar flaws  in  the  cement  of  societv. 

But  before  I  give  the  examples  which  kept  step  together, 
of  illegal  individual  retribution  and  of  legal  justice,  I  will 
take  time  to  relate  how  near  circumstantial  evidence  came  to 
bring  a  Lynch  verdict  on  the  head  of  an  innocent  stranger. 

THE  FOOT-PRINTS. 

We  had  working  at  the  quarry  a  tall,  stupid,  heavy-eyed 
peon,  who  had  been  whipped  and  starved  by  his  master  until 
the  whole  powers  of  his  mind  and  body  had  concentrated 
down  into  one  idea — that  of  saying  "  yes  "  to  every  require- 
ment, possible  or  impossible,  that  was  propounded  to  him — 
and  one  capacity — eating  the  wrholc  day  long.  "  Carlos 
would  eat  up  the  Carcel,  locks,  masonry  and  roof,"  his  com- 
panions said,  and  that  was  the  reason  he  was  never  imprison- 
ed in  it  by  his  master,  who  exhausted  his  ingenuity  to  tor- 


THE  FOOTPRINTS.  \$q 


o 


lnriit  the  wretched  slave  into  searching-  up  a  new  home. 
Poor  Carlos  had  not  the  wit  to  do  that;  but  he  made  out  to 
run  away  at  the  instigation  of  a  cunning,  unprincipled  fellow- 
peon,  who  delighted  in  the  not  very  apposite  name  of  Santo 
dc  Dius  (Holy  of  God).  How  Santo  stirred  such  a  lump  of 
apathy  into  this  decided  action,  is  really  a  marvel,  and  the 
instigator  was  not  so  far  ifrom  the  mark,  perhaps,  when  he 
slyly  said,  "  It  was  the  smell  of  the  American  kitchens  that 
drew  him  along."  Carlos  was  a  slow  and  incllicient  worker, 
and  his  friend  Santo  was  the  mirror  of  laziness,  so  the  heavi- 
est end  of  the  duty  fell  upon  a  strong,  hardy  German  who 
worked  with  them,  and  amused  himself  all  day  with  abusing 
his  co-workers,  and  wound  off  at  night  by  recapitulating  all 
their  shortcomings  to  their  employer.  Santo  de  Dies  had  a 
flippant  fluency  of  argument,  and  while  they  were  occupied 
with  these  wrangles,  silent  Carlos  would  devour  the  best  part 
of  their  supper,  and  then  as  silently  digest  it  under  the  stormy 
wrath  of  the  German.  Some  way  this  came  about  so  often 
that  a  feeling  against  Carlos,  as  an  unfair  dealer,  was  general, 
and  between  the  attacks  of  the  German  and  the  almost  deser- 
tion of  Santo,  he  became  the  incessant  target  of  the  whole 
corps ;  and  although  he  never  replied,  except  by  a  meek  as- 
sent, to  all  they  chose  to  make  him  endure,  at  last  he  found 
his  situation  intolerable.  His  old  master,  on  learning  that  his 
escaped  serf  was  making  good  wages  on  the  safe  side  of  the 
Bravo,  had  addressed  himself  in  such  a  way  to  the  fears  or 
conscience  of  Carlos,  as  to  obtain  from  him  a  promise  to  give 
him  one  half  of  his  earnings.  When  Carlos  applied  for  an  ad- 
vance for  this  purpose,  his  account  was  carefully  read  to  him, 
and  he  saAv  it  was  already  overdrawn  :  for  he  came  so  mise- 
rably destitute  that  every  needful  article,  from  his  shoes  to  a 
blanket  for  his  sleep,  had  to  be  supplied  as  soon  as  lie  was 
taken  into  employment.     One  of  the  most  discouraging  ob- 


156  LIFE  ON  2'xSE  LOLL. 

cles  to  those  who  would  fain  raise  the  standard  of  peon 
existence,  is  in  their  childish  di-  rusts  and  their  uncertain 
faith.  Their  whole  practical  knowledge  is  of  wrong,  deceit 
and  oppression,  and  anything  else  is  to  these  heirs  of  suffer- 
ing an  unknown  tongue,  a  doubtful  land.  Carlos  had  not  the 
head  to  decipher  either.  He  was  alarmed  to  find  himself  in 
debt  to  his  new  master,  while  his  old  one  was  yet  full  of 
terrors.  At  the  break  of  day  he  had  attempted  to  recross 
the  river  and  fly  into  his  own  country,  but  the  Bravo  had 

D  in  the  night,  and  the  Eagle's  Ford  was  impassable. 
With  not  a  little  surprise  we  heard  that  he  had  been  watch- 
ed, pursued,  and  brought  back  by  Baptiste,  on  a  charge  of 
stealing,  before  we  suspected  his  departure. 

Wet,  frightened  and  confused,  he  appeared,  in  the  stalwart 
grasp  of  the  inflexible  borderer,  the  very  picture  of  forlorn 
guilt.  Baptiste,  now  occupied  in  building  him  a  neat  dwell- 
ing-house in  the  place  of  his  first  grotto-like  quarters,  had, 
from  time  to  time,  lost  flour  and  other  matters — in  the  line  of 
food  principally — which  his  limited  house-room  compelled 
him  to  leave  in  the  gallery  or  shed  outside.  His  suspicions 
fell  on  Carlos,  who  was  alwavs  cooking  and  eatinor  at  nio-ht. 
and  on  the  preceding  evening  he  almost  caught  him  in  the 
act.  He  saw  a  figure  stealing  down  into  our  camp  of  labor- 
ers, just  at  moon-set,  and  from  the  broken  glimpse  among  the 
mesquetes  and  mulberries,  he  thought  the  stature  above  that 
of  any  other  of  the  Mexicans.  He  "  would  not  come  down  and 
disturb  the  lady  by  a  night-row,"  he  said,  "  but  he  took  his 
marks  and  kept  watch."  The  track  from  the  flour-barrel  was 
of  large  heavy  boots,  "  rights  and  'efts,"  and  on  one  the  heel 
was  missing.  This  mark  he  had  noted  before,  but  onlv  the 
day  before  had  found  that  it  was  Carlos  alone  whose  large- 

d  boots  would  correspond  with  the  track,  and  that  one  of 
them,  alio,  lacked  a  heel.     The  secret  and  unaccountable  at- 


THE  :7 

tempt  leave  the  place,  which  I  e  had  in 

cep.  "is  another  feature  against  him,  a 

col:  it  dai\-. 

"With  regretful  yet  reso.  -   head 

drev.  upon  what  examr. 

be  made  in  the 

criminal  of  Eagle  Pass.     But.. 
in  such  cas- 
mine  f  .nd  in  a  bod 

:e.     The  ere  fi: 

a  frontiersman  can  s  JUgh  ' 

the  lost  heel  of  Carlos  did  i  .1  the  left 

thief.     0:.  on  tl 

foot,  ar.d  then  Ba^  if  frankly  observec 

-s  were  deeper  than  made. 

-  I  led  s 

He 
had  be        .  cool  -  I  juc 

make  what  may  be  a  juc 

foo.  d  1    :n  he  How 

he  nm:    _    Li     _  '.ement  v 

rved  by  any  c  for  it  m 

borne  in  mind  tha:  id  no  horse,  and  our  -Ameri- 

can neighbor  was  -  the  Leona, 

and  b«  n —  nd  for  hundreds  of  n  -  down  the 

Bro :here  was  nothing  but  uninhabited   |  :»amed 

by  hostile  In  It  was  known  what  became  of  h 

but  with  the  best  that  could  happer.  n  paid 

a  1.  .tonement  for  his  fault.      Vet,  the  qu 

be  line  of  self-pr  n  is  open  to  t'.. 

isolated  frontk: 

Carlos  was       used  to  cm  cd  inj  thai  he  could 

scarcely  believe  in  .ire  acqu.  a  close  chain 


158  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

of  suspicious  circumstances  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  men 
have  been  brought  to  the  gallows  by  more  incomplete  circum- 
stantial evidence.  He  -was  sent  to  get  a  warm  breakfast, 
and  dry  clothes,  and  then  questioned  about  his  sudden  and 
stealthy  attempt  to  run  away.  With  long  and  patient  cross- 
examination,  we  came  at  last  to  the  reasons,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  a  new  argument,  in  favor  of  his  honesty.  Stolid  and 
unfeeling  as  he  appeared,  the  gibes  of  his  companions  had 
goaded  him  past  endurance,  yet  he  did  not  "  desire  to  bring 
them  under  castigation,"  as  he  expressed  it,  by  complaining 
to  their  common  employer,  and  therefore  he  resolved  to  return 
and  throw  himself  on  the  mercy  of  his  old  master  ;  but  know- 
ing himself  in  arrears,  he  gave  his  new  fresada,  or  blanket, 
which  was  all  he  had  for  coat  or  bedding,  to  the  faithless 
Santo  de  Dios,  who  promised  him  to  settle  up  his  account. 
But  for  his  summary  arrest  and  acquittal,  no  one  concerned 
would  ever  have  heard  of  this  arrangement,  for  he  trusted 
to  a  brittle  reed  in  Santo  ;  however,  all  was  made  right  now, 
and  he  carried  home  with  him — for  go  he  must  and  would — 
his  fresada.  The  rush  of  events  among  the  Americans  was 
perfectly  overwhelming  to  his  stunned  faculties,  and  it  was 
doubtless  a  relief  to  get  back  to  the  regular  whippings  and 
stated  rations  of  his  former  home. 

ME  XICAN  PEONS. 

With  Carlos  we  dismissed  his  chief  tormentors,  Victoriano 
and  Pedro  Chico,  and  his  untrustworthy  friend  Santo  de  Dios. 
Thev  heard  in  silence  the  serious  decree  of  banishment — for 
to  them  it  was  serious — but  it  is  a  rare  and  stern  misfortune 
indeed  that  wrings  a  Mexican  from  his  impassible  self-control. 
Yet,  on  the  least  occasion,  they  will  pour  out  a  mellifluous 
tide  of  five-syllabled  words  that  would  overwhelm,  drown, 


MEXICAN  PEONS.  \~0d 

and  bury  fathoms  deep  in  its  insignificance,  an  average  Con- 
gressional Bpeech.  It  is  the  universal  characteristic  of  the  In- 
dian race,  and  the  natural  eloquence  of  the  Bed  Man  is  won- 
derfully aided  and  enhanced  by  the  noble  grace  of  thematch- 

-  Spanish  language.  Here  were  a  baud  of  common 
untaught  laborers  brought  up  in  every  respect,  but  hard  work, 
like  their  wild  Indian  brothers,  unseen  and  unseeing  of  more 
than  half  a  ray  of  civilization,  yet  when  they  make  their  „  1 
every  sonorous  word  and  sentence  rings  with  courtly  \ 
tension.  Q  te  n  Victoria's  retiring  cabinet  cannot  pro: 
their  loyal  devotion  in  liner  phrase — nor  perhaps  with  more 
insincerity — for  these  docile  and  over-respectful  peons  are 
too  hardly  t: rated  to  be  reliably  honest.  They  are  crushed 
and  plundered  until  they  are  driven  to  rob  their  robbers  in 
self-defence  ;  but  they  do  cheat  you  with  such  infinite  courte- 
explain  away  their  little  depredations  in  such  grace- 
ful and  resounding  Johnsonians,  that  one  feels  it  is  almost  im- 
pertinent to  name  such  trifles  amid  so  much  fine  talk.  Our 
curt,  plain-spoken  Americans  find  their  deeds  so  much  in- 
ferior to  their  words — for  it  would  not  be  easy  to  keep  up  with 
such  magnificent  holdings  forth — that  there  is  a  disposition  to 
judge  the  Mexicans  with  severity  and  to  deal  with  them  be- 
yond the  law.  This  is  not  Christian  charity.  They  have 
the  faults  inevitable  to  their  position.  For  them  there  is  no 
standing  ground  left  for  public  virtue  or  private  independ- 
ence. The  soil  has  been  torn  from  them  by  the  great  land- 
holders who  monopolize  what  should  support  a  thousand 
prosperous  and  instructed  families,  for  the  pasture  of  as  many 
head  of  cattle  and  horses,  and  the  homeless  peon  must  starve 
or  tend  the  rich  man's  herds  at  his  own  price.     Schools 

ond  his  reach,  and  the  law  doles  out  to  him  the  solaces  of 
religion  at  exorbitant  prices.  Homeless,  untaught,  and  op- 
pressed, he  sinks  into  sullen  despair  or  desperately  rushes 


160  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER 

into  crime ;  and  when  the  most  daring  deeds  of  robbery  and 
murder  have  rendered  his  own  country  unsafe  for  him,  he 
crosses  the  Bravo,  and  probably  pursues  his  career  at  the  ex- 
pense of  our  herds  and  horses,  until  he  is  caught  in  the  fact 
and  handed  over  tofthe  verdict  of  Lynch  law. 

THE  ONE  MAN  COURT. 

The  tendency  of  individual  man  to  enforce  for  himself  the 
retribution  when  the  law  is  too  ne^lio-ent  or  too  feeble  to  ex- 
act  it  from  the  wrongdoer,  has  been  fearfully  illustrated  of 
late  at  Fort  Duncan. 

Two  Germans  enlisted  and  served  together  in  the  United 
States  forces  at  that  post.  Whether  they  were  united  by  near 
ties  of  kindred  or  only  attached  and  faithful  friends,  they 
were  noticed  by  their  fellow  soldiers  for  that  deep,  silent,  un- 
changing constancy  of  brotherhood  of  which  Ave  see  so  many 
remarkable  instances  among  the  children  of  the  Rhine.  Alone 
in  a  new  country,  and  in  the  midst  of  strangers  and  an  unfa- 
miliar tongue,  they  kept  apart  from  others  without  offence, 
and  lived  by  themselves  in  the  language  and  memories  of  the 
beloved  fatherland.  It  happened,  for  their  misfortune,  that 
there  was  in  the  same  service  a  riotous  and  ill-tempered  man, 
noted  for  his  quarrelsome,  abusive  habits,  and  boastful  of  his 
former  deeds  of  bloodshed.  He  was  one  of  those  beasts  of 
prey,  whose  wild  tusks  and  dangerous  claws  a  well-organized 
society  would  cut  off  while  they  were  tender,  or  enclose  in 
strong  walls,  until  he  learned  better  uses  for  their  energies. 
One  day,  while  roaming  about  the  camp  in  an  irritable  mood, 
he  encountered  one  of  these  unoffending  Germans,  and  in  his 
frenzy  cut  him  down  with  a  mortal  wound.  His  horror- 
struck  companion  never  left  his  side  during  his  lingering  death 
agony,  and  when  all  was  over  attended  the  last  rites  with 


THE  MAX  COURT.  iqi 

such  silent  composure  of  sorrow  as  surprised  the  company. 
Some  said  this  Bpeechlei  t  was  the  more  bitter,  and  ar- 

gued all  the  worse  for  the  murderer,  Fay. 

The  brutal  assassin  was  kept  chained  in  the  guard-house 
two  or  three  months,  awaiting-  the  action  of  the  civil  authori- 
ties. They  were  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  off  at  San  An- 
tonio, and  as  their  county  jail  was  already  overburdened 
with  criminals,  they  were  in  no  hurry  to  claim  the  gift  in  store 
for  them  at  Fort  Duncan.  The  officers  there  grew  tired  at 
of  keeping  guard  over  a  ward  that  seemed  to  belong  to  no 
,  and  between  hands  Fay  found  himself  on  the  outside  i  I 
his  prison.  He  was  seen  hovering  about  the  limits  of  the 
camp  during  the  next  day,  and  then  he  totally  disappeared. 

Two  months  or  more  had  passed  when  Juan,  the  techedor, 
or  chief  thateher  at  Eagle  Pass,  was  out  in  search  of  grass 
proper  for  roofing,  and  he  encountered  in  a  thicket,  scarcely 
a  league  from  the  fort,  the  body  of  a  man.  The  limbs  were 
composed,  and  a  cloth  thrown  over  the  face,  not  for  conceal- 
ment, for  there  was  no  show  of  such  a  thought,  but  as  if  in 
a  sort  of  respect  to  the  helpless  remains  of  mortality.  Yet 
the  hand  that  paid  this  reverence  to  the  dead  had,  beyond 
doubt,  sent  a  ball  through  the  brain  of  the  living  man.  The 
dead  man  was  buried  as  he  lay,  without  farther  care  or  ques- 
tion, by  throwing  a  few  shovels  of  earth  over  him.  Those 
who  went  to  see  the  corse  on  Juan's  report,  thought  they  re- 
cognized in  the  dry,  discolored  object  before  them,  the  victim 
of  a  just  atonement  in  the  person  cf  the  murderer.  Fay,  and 
suspected,  without  blaming  him,  the  murdered  man's  friend, 
lb'  had  exacted  for  himself  that  retribution  which  Ly  had 

omitted,  though  it  usually  assumes  the  right  cf  vengeance 
a  collective  duty  ai.d  benefit.     No  one  chose  to  press  inquiry, 
and  the  secret  sleeps  undisturbed  in  the  shallow  grave  of  him 
who  has  thus  met  the  law  of  "  blood  for  bloud." 


162  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

THE  COURT-MARTIAL. 

The  other  was  a  case  of  collective  retribution,  of  regular 
legal  vengeance,  although  the  crime  and  the  punishment 
were  of  a  milder  hue.  It  is  true  the  culprit  would  have 
been  hanged  in  the  navy — the  poor  seaman  Jackson  was 
hanged  in  the  bay  of  Vera  Cruz  for  such  an  offence — but  in 
this  instance  the  accused  had  the  advantage  of  judges  more 
disposed  to  show  lenity  than  to  exact  the  fulness  of  the  law. 

A  non-commissioned  officer,  of  generally  prudent  habits 
and  fair  repute,  who  has  served  the  United  States  some  ten 
or  fifteen  years  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  superiors,  went  over 
to  that  den  of  wickedness,  the  military  colony  on  the 
Mexican  side  of  the  river,  to  buy  some  little  comforts  for  his 
family.  While  there,  he  drank  some  of  the  abominable 
brandy  of  the  country,  and  whether  it  was  drugged  or  only 
the  natural  poison  of  the  liquid,  it  completely  unsettled  the 
reason  of  the  unfortunate  man.  His  companion  was  surprised 
at  his  wild  conduct,  and  tried  to  quiet  him,  but  he  only 
became  more  turbulent,  and  finally  made  an  onslaught  on  a 
Mexican  woman  who  came  in  his  way.  Just  at  this  moment 
the  surgeon  of  the  post  came  by,  and,  surprised  at  the  violent 
and  unusual  conduct  of  Brown,  he  interfered  to  save  the 
woman  and  bring  the  maniac  to  his  senses.  In  doing  this, 
the  officer  received  a  blow,  but  as  he  settled  the  account 
fully  on  the  spot,  and  saw  as  well  that  Brown  was  under 
evil  influences,  he  was  not  anxious  to  make  the  matter  worse 
for  the  offender  than  it  already  stood.  This  forbearing 
wish,  however,  was  destined  to  have  no  effect :  Brown's 
infraction  of  discipline  became  known,  and  the  army  code 
made  it  indispensable  to  call  him  before  a  court-martial.  The 
man  of  many  murders  went  forth  free,  but  he  who  in  blind 
madness  raised  his  hand  against  an  officer  could  not  escape 


THE  COURT-MARTIAL.  163 

punishment.  The  least  that  could  be  done  was  to  convene 
a  court-martial;  the  least  a  court-martial  could  do,  with 
proper  regard  to  the  preservation  of  order  and  obedience, 
was  to  destroy  his  pro  .  and  the  hopes  of  his  family. 

There  was  no  disposition  to  exaggerate  his  offence  or  its  pun- 
ishment. As  kindly  and  merciful  men  as  we  have  in  the 
army  sat  in  judgment  upon  him,  with  the  sincere  wish  to 
soften  the  rigors  of  military  law  as  much  as  they  could,  con- 
sistently with  military  discipline,  but  the  necessities  of  dis- 
cipline set  narrow  and  well-guarded  limitations  to  mercy. 
They  laid  upon  him  the  lightest  penalties  of  martial  law. 
They  only  confiscated  his  arrears  of  pay,  the  savings  of  many 
weary  months,  and  his  bounty  land.  This  was  the  end  of 
the  devotion  to  his  country,  of  one-third  of  his  years  of  man- 
hood— to  be  driven  from  the  camp  with  ignominy,  and  for- 
feit the  homestead  land  promised  by  the  country  to  her 
faithful  soldiers.  This  was  the  gentlest  line  that  could  be 
taken  for  an  hour's  madness,  and  a  blow  that  hurt  nobody. 
The  officer  that  received  it  would  have  been  well  pleased  if  the 
exigencies  of  the  service  had  permitted  this  act  of  insobordi- 
oation  to   pass  by  in   silence,  for  in  restraining   the  man's 

ne  folly,  he  had  been  forced  then  and  there  to  inflict 
upon  him  some  decisive  chastisement.  This  poor,  dismissed, 
ruined  man  would  call  his  sentence  yvwvc,  perhaps  unjustly 
Bevere,  for  his  fault,  yet  he  was  spared  the  lash,  he  was 
spared  a  degrading  confinement  in  chains,  for  his  term  of. 

vice  had  nearly  expired  ;  and  let  it  be  said  clearly,  and  at 
once,  that  the  whole  tenor  of  the  military  command  at  1 
Duncan  has  been  eminently  kind,  equitable,  and  considerate 
towards  the  Boldiers,  and  the  fault  lies  in  the  sordid  manner 
in  which  the  United  St,".  -  pays  its  del*,  nders.  It  is  not  to 
be  expected  that  a  high  grade  of  men  can  be  hired  for  peon's 
pay  and  treatment,  and  the  law  is  shaped  for  the  government 


164  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

of  such  as  it  expects  to  get  at  such  wages.  I  only  cite  this 
case  to  show  that  men  in  all  circumstances  must  and  will  find 
— or  make — such  rules  of  retributive  justice  as  they  believe 
necessary  to  the  occasion. 

THE    COMMUNITY  COURT. 

The  "wild  verdicts  borderers  sometimes  enact,  in  the  faith 
that  they  are  just  and  needful,  sound  uncouthly  to  those 
fenced  round  with  regular  courts,  and  must  seem  dreadful  to 
Christian  men  accustomed  to  the  solemn  decorum  with  which 
constituted  courts  deal  out  their  legal  awards  of  chains, 
lashes,  and  hangings ;  yet,  seen  close  at  hand,  with  a  know- 
ledge of  the  situation  of  the  community,  and  of  the  life  and 
deeds  of  the  evil-doer,  many  of  Judge  Lynch's  verdicts  will 
appear  more  just  and  necessary  than  half  of  the  sentences  of 
the  regular  courts.  Let  some  Samaritan,  thrice  armed  with 
patience,  and  imbued  to  the  uttermost  with  an  innocent  faith 
in  the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  our  existing  laws,  search  out 
the  data,  and  he  will  find  that  we  have  not  one  ship  of  war 
afloat  that  is  not  stained  with  more  blood,  "on  slight  pre- 
tences shed,"  than  he  can  verify  in  the  entire  annals  of 
American  lynching.  There  are  a  dozen  ships  in  our  navy, 
aye,  a  round  score  of  them,  without  counting  the  Somers 
infamy,  that  have  witnessed  in  almost  any  one  of  their  long- 
cruises,  more  undeserved  tortures,  and  more  lives  let  out 
through  them,  than  has  ever  been  perpetrated  in  all  the 
Lynch  courts  of  the  Avildest  of  our  frontier  States.  I  am  no 
apologist  for  Lynch  law,  and  trust  it  has  run  its  race  ;  yet 
even  its  brutal  blood-thirstiness  is  as  often  "  a  social  nee 
sity  " — as  the  gallows  party  term  their  altar  of  civilization — 
as  the  legalized  cord.  Until  universal  instruction  and  universal 
employment  work  out  their  mission,  crime  will  follow  tempta- 


IB  COMMUNITY  COURT.  ]65 

lion,  and   punishment   pursue   crime.     They  arc  the  insepa- 
rable furii  fable. 

A  lawless    Ishm  that  some  older  society  has  neg- 

lected, trampled  upon  and  cast  from  its  bosom,  rushes  into  a 
remote  settlement  burning  with  a  feeling  of  war  with  all  his 
race.  This  community!  planted  by  itself  at  a  long  distance 
from  legal  succor,  becomes  from  the  necessities  of  its  position 
its  own  Church  and  State.  If  it  im<U  in  its  midst  a  murderer 
or  a  thief,  it  deals  with  the  outlaw  as  seems  to  it  best  for  its 
own  peace  and  security.  Statute  law  is  but  the  formal  ex- 
pression of  what  the  larger  community  deems  wisest  and  most 
just  for  the  general  welfare  ;  the  small,  crude,  remote  settle- 
ment does  the  same  for  itself,  only  without  writing  down  its 
enactments,  and  in  the  more  summary  way  enforced  by  its 
peculiar  situation.  It  has  no  prison  houses  in  which  to  de- 
tain a  criminal,  no  courts  in  which  to  try  him,  no  funds 
w  herew  ith  to  support  him  in  long  duress.  If  a  crime  is  com- 
mitted the  accused  has  the  whole  community  for  judges  and 
jury,  and  if  he  is  found  guilty  by  common  suffrage  they  pro- 
ceed to  execute  the  verdict.  Instead  of  sending  him  for  ten 
years  to  a  penitentiary,  where  he  will  receive  uncounted 
lashes,  when  and  how  it  may  please  a  warden  as  brutal  as 
himself  perhaps,  they  tie  him  to  the  most  convenient  tree  and 
have  out  the  whole  cup  of  vengeance  at  once.  They  are  not 
prepared  to  sip  it  sweetly  under  law-sanction  for  years  on- 
ward, and  must  have  it  in  one  draught  or  remit  it  altogether 

A  man  in  north-eastern  Texas  had  an  amiable  habit  of  bit- 
ing and  pinching  his  wife — just  for  his  own  independent 
amusement — whenever  he  came  home  drunk,  and  that  hap- 
pened about  weekly.  The  helpless  wife,  the  sickly  mother 
of  a  young  family,  had  no  choice  but  to  endure  these  cruel- 
ties, for  he  had  brought  her  a  long  fourteen  hundred  miles 
from  her  friends  on  the  Schuylkill,  and  there  was  no  asylum 


1G6  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

open  to  her  little  ones.  For  their  sake  she  bore  these  wrongs  ; 
for  their  sake  she  swallowed  her  tears  and  dragged  her  bruised 
limbs  through  her  incessant  daily  toil,  while  the  master  of 
her  person  varied  the  delights  of  his  cards  and  cup  with  the 
music  of  her  agony.  The  wife  dared  not,  could  not,  repel 
the  ill-treatment  of  her  tyrant,  but  the  community  resolved 
to  protect  its  abused  member,  and  in  full  assemblage  it  fixed 
upon  the  chastisement  proper  to  the  offender.  One  hundred 
lashes  was  the  fine  imposed  by  this  impromptu  common  law, 
and  his  own  cart  happened  to  come  best  to  hand  for  its  exe- 
cution. He  was  bound  to  it  by  twenty  volunteer  sheriffs, 
while  his  wife  in  vain  implored  for  him  the  mercy  he  had 
never  extended  to  her,  and  the  fine  was  promptly  and  duly  ex- 
acted. It  was  not  a  tithe  of  the  physical  suffering  he  had 
imposed  on  the  feeble  frame  of  the  woman  who  had  left  be- 
hind all  other  life  to  share  his  lot,  but  nothing  was  said  of  his 
crime  when  the  press  caught  up  and  bruited  the  punishment 
as  an  evidence  of  the  "horrid  license  of  the  Lynch  Code." 
In  the  State  they  came  from  it  was  cited  as  an  example  of 
the  barbarous  manners  of  Texas,  yet  in  that  same  pattern 
State  the  law  had  permitted  this  John  Smith  to  squander  his 
wife's  little  inheritance  of  three  thousand  dollars,  against  her 
will  and  entreaties,  and  leave  her  and  her  babes  without  a  shelter. 
It  permitted  the  rum-seller  to  seize  the  household  goods  she 
had  acquired  by  her  industry,  and  sanctioned  her  husband 
sending  to  auction  the  trifling  gear  the  law  exempts  for  the 
pressing  needs  of  a  family.  The  law  and  custom  made  him  so 
inexorably  her  master,  that,  on  his  promise  of  better  temper- 
ance, she  was  fain  to  forgive  him  all  this  and  follow  him  to 
Ohio,  where  her  brother  had  bequeathed  her  an  interest  in  the 
proceeds  of  some  land.  This  money  enabled  him  to  drag 
her,  sorely  against  her  health  and  her  wishes,  to  Arkansas — 
where  he  began  his  habit  of  personal  abuse — and  thence  to 


THE  BORDER  NEED.  lf,7 

is.  Here  the  free  grant  of  land  to  settlers  gave  her  a 
home  at  last,  and  the  law  of  homestead  exemption  made  it 
safe  to  her  children.  Lynch  law  effectually  frightened  him 
into  better  behavior — for  the  brutal  coward  who  can  raise 
his  hand  against  a  woman  is  exactly  of  the  mould  to  yield 
to  fear  and  brute  force — and  fenced  around  by  loving  children 
in  a  secure  home,  she  is  to-day  a  prosperous  woman. 

THE  BORDER  NEED. 

IlArriLY,  Eagle  Pass  lias  now  outgrown  the  danger  of 
Lynch  tribunals.  We  have,  with  most  other  appliances  of 
civilization,  a  precinct  organization  and  a  competent  local  ma- 
gistrate to  deal  with  offenders — if  offences  come — and  to  marry 
if  any  are  anxious  to  be  bound.  The  Padres  of  the  nearest 
Mexican  towns  can  be  called  to  the  aid  of  the  sinful  and  suf- 
fering— if  the  fees  are  ready — and  happily,  the  general  health 
of  the  country  renders  less  important  the  absence  of  a  phy- 
sician. With  half  a  dozen  stores  above  and  below  Fort  Dun- 
can, and  a  fair  tale  of  laborers,  (I  wish  I  could  say  artisans, 
but  we  have  them  not,)  there  is  not  a  doctor  of  law,  of  medi- 
cine, or  of  divinity,  among  our  citizens.  Law-suits  and  sec- 
tarian controversies  have  not  taken  root  as  yet,  and  nobody 
seems  to  suffer  in  mind,  body,  or  estate,  in  our  happy  and 
quiet  corner.  The  tone  of  society  is  quiet  and  kindly,  because 
its  members  are  principally  of  the  best  grade  of  morals  and 
intelligence,  and  because  there  are  not  so  many  ladies  here, 
that  they  can  afford  to  break  up  into  little  rival  coteries.  We 
have,  all  told,  about  a  dozen,  and  Ave  can't  well  subdivide 
tliem  into  many  classes.  There  is,  in  means,  manners,  edu- 
cation, and  social  rank,  a  m<»st  happy  equality.  Not  one  is 
in  anything  particularly  favored  above  her  peers,  and  not  one 
is  below  the  standard  average  of  an  American  lady.    Neither 


168  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

are  there  salient  advantages  in  the  position  of  any  one  hus- 
band to  elevate  his  wife  to  the  rank  of  lady  patroness,  unless 
we  were  to  concede  it  to  the  commanding:  Colonel's  amiable 
lady,  and  she  would  never  accept  the  honor.  We  have  no 
bickerings  for  precedence  therefore,  and  would  have  to  make 
an  occasion,  since  none  exists,  if  we  were  bent  on  finding  any 
one  to  put  to  slight.  As  this  harmonious  state  seems  in  flat 
contradiction  to  the  inexorable  laws  of  village  existence,  and 
must,  of  necessity,  be  a  transient  phenomenon,  I  hasten  to  put 
it  on  record,  while  the  unique  fact  is  still  a  living  truth.  It 
ought  to  embalm  the  name  of  Eagle  Pass  in  the  history  of 
womankind  forever. 

Yet,  Ave  have  here  a  wide  untrodden  field  for  hi^h  effort. 
Science  and  mechanical  skill  have  vast  mines  of  wealth  to  ex- 
plore, for,  to  a  known  certainty,  rich  mineral  stores  exist  un- 
touched, within  an  easy  and  profit-ensuring  distance  of  the 
navigable  current  of  the  Bravo.  But  capital  and  combined 
industry  is  the  key  to  the  noble  resources  sleeping  in  this  vast 
valley.  Association,  the  association  of  capital,  science  and 
labor,  in  honorable  fraternity,  is  to  be  the  "  open  sesame"  of 
this  central  heart  of  our  continent.  No  immense  sums  of 
money,  no  large  bodies  of  laborers  are  needed,  but  in  suffi- 
cient and  compact  force  they  must  come,  if  they  would  dis- 
inter these  treasures.  Still  a  greater  need,  still  a  higher  duty 
calls  the  Christian  pastor  to  this  vineyard. 

Canting,  sectarian  bigots,  who  would  shut  the  gates  of 
heaven  to  every  soul  who  did  not  go  there  upon  their  special 
endorsement,  are  not  the  men  for  this  duty.  The  self-right- 
eous Pharisees,  whom  our  Divine  Teacher  rebuked  daily  for 
their  strictness  in  dogmas,  and  uncharitableness  in  deeds,  still 
hold  the  chief  seats  in  mairy  of  our  polished  synagogues,  and 
there  let  them  stay  ;  but  give  us,  and  still  more  give  to 
the  neglected,  untaught,  despoiled  Red   Race,  the  gentle, 


BORDER  NEED.  igo 

guileless,  and  forbearing  disciple  of   Him  who  placed  the 

kind  and  practical  Samaritan  abuvc  the  formal  and  self-right- 
eous Levitc.  There  is  an  oppressed  remnant  to  be  saved, 
there  is  a  wandering  and  benighted  people  to  be  redeemed, 
and  surely  the  will  must  exist  where  the  power  is  so  ample 
for  this  work  of  salvation.  Ask  not  in  what  mode,  or  by  what 
sectarian  name,  the  forlorn  and  friendless  exile  is  conducted 
to  the  altar  of  the  living  God,  so  that  his  understanding  is 
3d,  and  his  heart  opened  to  know  and  feel  the  redeeming 
truths  of  Christianity.  Give  the  outcast  a  home,  and  in  the 
genial  glow  of  its  calm  sympathies  teach  him  to  labor,  for 
this  is  the  saving  probation  allotted  toman:  to  love  his  kind, 
and  to  reverence  God  by  obeying  his  commandments,  for  this 
is  the  teaching  of  the  Prince  of  Peace,  of  him  who  condemned 
forms  and  phylacteries  when  charity  did  not  reign  therein. 
To  do  this,  the  Indians  must  be  gathered  into  communities 
and  made  to  realize  the  tender  relations  of  peaceful  family 
life.  The  school-book  and  the  Bible  must  keep  step  together, 
the  plough  and  the  reaping-hook  must  work  for  them  until 
their  young  children  have  learned  to  value  and  live  hi/  them. 
The  Church  must  be  planted  amid  the  fields  and  orchards  of 
a  settled  and  permanent  civilization,  to  perform  its  whole  mis- 
sion. The  government  can  give  a  home,  build  quarters,  as- 
sign rations,  and  gather  into  regular  communities,  many  of  the 
tribes,  directly  under  its  jurisdiction,  with  half  the  money 
squandered  upon  them  in  rum-paid  annuities.  Surely,  if  it 
can  afford  to  expend  so  much  in  making  this  unhappy  race 
like  the  beasts  that  perish,  it  could  find  the  way,  if  it  had  the 
will,  to  instruct  and  civilize  them  into  men. 

In  these  communities,  while  the  old  and  stubborn  were  held 
in  peaceful  submission,  the  young  could  be  trained  to  habits 
of  civilized  industry,  and  their  children  again  would  rise  still 
higher,  and  be  good  citizens  and  Christian  examples. 
8 


170  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

The  noblest  possible  missionary  effort  -would  be  the  estab* 
ment  of  an  industrial  school,  for  the  instruction  of  the 
bright  and  well-endowed  Mexican  youth,  who,  under  a  be- 
nign and  steady  guidance,  could  be  modelled  into  teachers  for 
their  savage  kindred.  Ten  thousand  dollars  would  found  on 
border  such  a  self-supporting,  agricultural,  and  mechan- 
ical missionary  school.  The  suitable  land  waits  the  accept- 
ance of  the  fathers  in  Israel,  who  will  undertake  the  arduous 
yet  delightful  task  of  laying  the  first  corner-stone  for  the 
social  and  moral  redemption  of  the  Red  Race. 

PLEASANT  DISCOVERIES 

In  the  mouth  of  babes  and  women  we  often  find  the  wis- 
dom which  we  have  sought  in  vain  from  the  elaborate  reports 
of  high-titled  officials.  There  are  millions  of  acres  of  United 
States  domain  that  no  one  cares  to  buy,  because  it  is  only 
grazing  land,  and  even  so,  but  thin  pasture,  which  want  no- 
thing but  a  free  application  of  that  fertilizing  absorbent, 
ground  gypsum,  to  bring  to  immediate  profit.  A  wide  region 
on  the  Bravo  is  in  the  same  position.  I  was  convinced  by 
certain  indications  that  we  were  not  far  from  a  plenteous  sup- 
ply of  this  redeeming  gift,  and  I  inquired  for  it  diligently 
from  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  know,  but  the  nearest  an- 
swer I  could  ever  get  was  from  Harry  Love,  who  brought  me 
some  fine  specimens  of  alabaster  from  the  extreme  navigable 
head  of  the  river. 

One  da}-  I  was  admiring  the  pure  and  pearly  whiteness  of 
the  walls  in  the  house  of  an  industrious  and  enterprising 
woman  on  the  Mexican  side — so  active  and  resolute,  indeed, 
as  to  inspire  a  sort  of  dislike  among  her  slow-going  countrv- 
men,  for  with  her  own  hands  she  helped  to  build  and  plaster 
her  house— and  I  added,  they  had  the  marble  finish  of  plas- 


PL  K.  l  sa  NT  U  IB  001  'EH  Li  \  7 1 

ter  of  Paris.  "And  they  are  of  that  material/1  was  the  prompt 
reply. 

•■  My  little  son  and  I  gathered  and  broke  the  rock  at  the 
river  side,  and  my  daughters  ground  it  into  meal  on  the  metaU 
and  boiled  it.     A  Frenchman  who  was  sick  at  my  house  ex- 
iled to    me   the  way  to  utilize  this  abundant    white  rock, 
and  here  it  is,  as  you  see,  the  work  of  my  own  hand 

This  is  the  contagious  influence  of  American  enterprise, 
which  Guadelnpe  caught  up  at  San  Antonio,  where  she  lived 
awhile,  and  engrafted  on  the  stubborn  stock  of  her  native 
Indian  patience.  This  border  could  be  made  to  bear  much 
of  this  hardy  fruit  with  a  small  outlay  of  kind  and  unselfish 
justice. 

Her  sou,  and  as  it  chanced,  my  ever  active  young  henchman, 
Pablito,  were  by,  listening  with  grave  wonder  to  my  minute 
que:         is  to  the  whereabouts  and  probabl*  at  of  the 

gypsum  bed,  and  although  they  could  not  see  why  any  one 
should  take  so  much  interest  in  such  dry  matters,  it  in- 
spired them  with  a  project  to  give  me  pleasure. 

A  few  days  after,  some  clear  and  handsome  blocks  of  gyp- 
sum were  presented   to  me  in  modest  triumph,  with  a  \ 

ct  account  of  how  and  where  they  were  to  be  found  in 
profusion.      With  some  hesitation,   and   with  a    sly  look  to 

■h  whether  he  had  not  done  a  foolish  tiling,  a  clear,  sm»' 
piece  of  fine  potter's  clay  was  also  drawn  out  of  its  hiding- 
place. 

"Where  did  this  come  from?"  I  asked  in  pleased  sur- 
prise. 

"  Oh,  there  is  a  hill  of  this  two  or  three  miles  from  the 
ondida." 

"  But  how  came  you  to  think  of  going  to  find  it'?"'  I  in- 
quired. 

"  My  lady  wanted  something   better  than  lime  to  plaster 


172  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

her  new  stone  house,"  said  Pablito  modestly,  "and  I  thought 
of  this,  for  I  heard  Don  Fernando  say  that  the  stone  build- 
ings at  La  Fiesta,  which  have  been  abandoned  twenty  years 
on  account  of  the  Indians,  were  plastered  with  it,  and  the  coat- 
ing is  perfectly  sound  and  beautiful  to-day." 

"  So  boys  and  women  bring  us  the  treasures  which  men — 
wise  in  their  own  conceit — pretend  do  not  exist.  Well,  my 
boy,  I  think  we  must  teach  you  what  there  is  in  books,  and 
send  you  out  to  look  for  mines." 

"  If  my  lady  will  give  me  permission,"  and  here  Pablito 
stopped  in  some  confusion,  as  if  he  feared  he  was  transgress- 
ing all  bounds. 

"  What  permission  do  you  desire  ?  Speak  frankly,  you 
know  me  to  be  still  more  your  friend  than  your  mistress.  Be 
assured  that  I  am  disposed  to  gratify  you  in  all  that  is  for 
your  own  good,  Pablito." 

"  If  such  a  thing  would  please  you  ;  if  you  would  permit 
your  horses  to  go,"  stammered  out  the  boy,  "there  is  another 
of  your  faithful  servants  who  would  go  with  your  poor 
Pablito  and  bring  you  some  silver  from  a  mine  in  the  moun- 
tains." 

"  Silver  from  a  mine  in  the  mountains,  my  lad !  how  do 
you  know  of  such  a  mine  ?"  I  inquired  with  interest. 

"  We  have  both  seen  it.  I  noticed  it  when  the  Indians 
carried  me  there  a  captive,  and  your  herdsman  saw  it,  also, 
once,  when  he  was  ranging  for  some  strayed  horses,"  replied 
the  boy,  gathering  confidence  from  my  interested  manner. 

"  Then  it  is  not  far  from  here  ?" 

"  It  is,  we  both  think,  ten  or  twelve  leagues  (thirty  miles 
perhaps)  from  the  river,  at  the  nearest  point." 

"  But  why  do  you  think  this  mine  is  silver  ?  We  know 
there  is  lead  at  about  that  distance,  and  in  the  direction  you 
indicate,  but  we  are  not  certain  of  silver." 


PL  !■:.  I BA  NT  DIS<  '0  7JBRIEB.  \  73 

"  Because  it  is  so  bright  and  hard  to  melt,"  said  he,  prompt- 
ly. "The  Indians  Btopped  to  eal  and  drink  at  a  spring 
near  it,  and  they  made  bullets  of  it,  but  bits  of  it  did  not  melt 
at  all." 

"  Since  at  least  two  of  our  people  knew  of  this  mine,  why 
have  you  kept  silence  on  it  so  many  months  ?" 

The  child  hesitated  a  moment,  but  his  attachment  prevail- 
ed over  his  Indian  instinct  of  caution, 'and  he  gave,  as  1  have 
no  doubt,  the  true  answer.  The  locality  was  dangerous  to 
visit,  and  they  were  not  disposed  to  be  sent  to  it,  for  the 
benefit  of  any  stranger,  the  less  as  in  no  event — so  say  the 
elders  of  their  rare,  and  so  says  history — had  a  mine  ever 
proved  a  blessing  to  an  Indian. 

u  Yet  you  are  willing,  and  so  you  say  is  the  herdsman,  to 
tell  me  of  this,  and  even  to  risk  going  for  some  of  the  metal." 

"Sefiora,"  said  the  boy  almost  solemnly,  "you  are  teach- 
ing us  both  to  read,  which  will  make  us  American  citizens,  yon 
know,  and  mines  are  a  blessing  to  Americans  and  to  every 
nation  but  Indians.  Therefore,  when  my  namesake  was  sick, 
and  he  was  kept  in  your  house  to  be  cured  and  you  gave  him 
a  book,  we  said  we  would  lay  before  you  this  secret." 

"  So  you  have  told  no  one  else  your  ideas,  and  only  me 
now  because  you  are  to  be  Indian  peons  no  more,  but  Ameri- 
cans ?" 

'•  That  is  it  precisely,  and  if  it  pleases  you  and  the  Holy 
Virgin,  we  arc  ready  to  go  when  you  command  and  bring 
you  plenty  of  this  lead-silver  from  the  mine." 

"  Is  there  much  of  it?"  I  asked  among  fifty  other  qu« 
tioi 

"  There  is  bands  and  snakes  of  it "  (these  are  his  literal 
words  rendered  in  English),  "  looking  out  and  creeping  along 
the  Blopes  of  a  long  steep  valley.  These  must  be  more  than 
would  load  a  thousand  muh's." 


174  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER 

Thus  in  one  -week  I  had  from  the  hands  of  ignorant  chil- 
dren, what  has  led  us  to  sure  evidence  of  the  existence  of  two 
valuable  minerals  within  an  easy  reach  of  our  village,  and  of 
a  third — a  fine  coal  bed — I  knew  before. 

In  taking  the  necessary  steps  to  secure  the  property  of 
Pablito's  silver  mine,  we  became  thoroughly  convinced  that  it 
is  a  rich  deposit  of  argentiferous  galena,  and  without  any 
obligation  to  the  hollow  display  of  government  explorations, 
which  thus  far  have  produced  nothing  but  doubt  and  discour- 
agement ;  the  women  and  children  offered  to  Eagle  Pass 
at  least,  two  important  aids  to  its  prosperity,  in  gypsum  and 
porcelain  clay,  and  without  counting  the  coal  we  may  find 
another  not  less — it  cannot  be  more — important,  in  the  silver 
mines  in  the  Lunita  hills. 

OUR  MINERAL  EMPIRE. 

From  the  borders  of  the  great  Lakes  to  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific,  from  the  copper  cliffs  of  Superior  to  the  sparkling 
sands  of  California,  stretches  a  broad  mineral  zone,  across 
the  entire  breadth  of  the  continent  at  its  widest  point.  Even 
under  the  developments  of  its  crude  infancy,  the  extent,  value 
and  variety  of  its  productions,  baffle  the  boldest  calculators, 
and  none  may  presume  to  compute  the  highest  capabilities 
of  this  vast  mineral  empire.  Coal,  Iron,  Copper,  Lead,  or 
Gold,  in  the  abundance  with  which  various  States  are  crowned, 
would  either  of  them  have  been  esteemed  a  kino-dom's  boast 
and  wealth  in  the  Old  World,  and  taken  together,  even  in  this 
great  Republic,  they  must  immediately  rank  as  an  extensive 
and  distinct  National  interest.  Like  the  Commercial,  the  Manu- 
facturing, the  Southern  and  the  Northern  Agricultural  interests, 
Mining  will  make  its  own  separate  and  magnificent  contribu- 
tion to  the  National  wealth,  and,  like  each  of  them,  demand 


OUR  MINERAL  EMPIRE.  1*75 

the  guardian  and  impartial  care  of  the  National  I  lation. 
Asking  no  favoritism  and  needing  no  exclusive  fosterage,  it 

will  demand  that  the  settlements  it  creates,  and  the  roads  to 
them,  shall  be  duly  protected,  and  that  mail  and  other  in;  - 
communication  shall  not  be  omitted ;  in  brief,  that  its  Terri- 
torial minority  and  the  independent  rights  of  its  majority 
shall  receive  the  care  and  respect  corresponding  to  its  weight 
and  importance  in  the  Union. 

As  if  to  chain  with  links  of  eternal  strength  all  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Union  in  one  unbreakable  circle,  this  mineral  zone 
bands  the  continent  at  the  head  and  confluence  of  all  the 
great  arteries.  The  Lakes  carry  its  various  tributes  to  the 
Atlantic,  or  circulate  them  as  required  among  the  Grain 
States.  The  Missouri — though  that  section  is  hardly  in  its 
dawn — the  Upper  Mississippi  and  the  Ohio  each  bring  rich 
tidings  of  ore-abounding  regions.  The  Rio  Bravo  del  N 
indents  the  land  of  Silver,  and,  with  the  rivers  last  named,  of- 
fers an  open  highway  from  the  Mining  regions  to  the  Mexi- 
can Gulf.  The  Gila  carries  its  golden  sands  to  the  Gulf  of 
California,  and  the  Sacramento  pours  her  shining  freights 
into  the  Pacific  Ocean.  Thus  this  magic  belt  of  ore  land, 
sweeping  from  the  far  North-East  to  the  extreme  West,  finds 
its  outlets  in  every  sea  that  bounds  the  continent,  and  gathering 
up  and  interlocking  in  her  bosom  the  sources  of  our  mightiest 
watercourses,  she  will  allow  no  mad  fanaticism  to  rend  them 
asunder,  and  divorce  the  river's  outlet  from  the  parent  foun- 
tain. The  Mining  Country  buys  of  all  and  sells  to  all, 
therefore  it  has  a  direct  and  pressing  interest  in  keeping  the 
peace  among  the  confederated  sisters  of  the  Union.  And 
when  she  is  older,  she  will  enforce  more  sensible  ways. 

Amoiw  the  last  hwwn,  and  least  heard  of  in  the  list  of 
mining  sections,  is  that  on  and  west  of  the  Upper  Rio  Grande. 
There  is  no  more  doubt  of  the  overflowing  riches  of  the  Silver 


1 7  G  LIFE  ON  THE  B  ORDER. 

regions  in  this  direction  than  of  the  placers  of  California,  but 
hitherto  it  has  been  a  sealed  book  to  the  white  race.  There 
•was  no  highway  to  it  known  except  by  a  difficult  land  route, 
swarming  with  Indian  enemies,  and  the  task  of  shortening  it 
by  better  surveys  and  more  efficient  defences,  has  gone  on 
but  tardily  until  now.  The  Treaty  with  Mexico  opened  to  us 
the  peaceful  exploration  of  the  Rio  Grande,  and  it  is  now 
ascertained  that  steamers  can  ascend  to  the  gates  of  the  min- 
ing country.  When  steamers  come  Indians  disappear,  and 
the  frontier  is  safe  for  settlement. 

Harry  Love  reports  but  one  obstacle — the  Island  Rapida 
near  Presidio  de  Rio  Grande — and  that  obstacle  is  easy  of 
remedy,  and  then  there  is  a  thousand  miles  of  navigation. 
This  covers  that  long  range  of  frontier  with  the  cheap  and 
effective  defence  of  a  few  economical  steamers,  and  unlocks  to 
us  the  Silver  mines  on  its  higher  sources.  Sante  Fe  and 
California  are  brought  a  thousand  miles  nearer  to  the  naviffa- 
tion  this  side  of  their  sierras  by  these  late  explorations,  and 
only  two  broken  links — Nebrasca  and  Centralia — are  to  be 
made  whole  to  unite  this  Mineral  Region  in  a  connetced  chain 
from  the  Pacific  to  the  Atlantic  and  the  Northern  Lakes. 
The  unexplored  Centralia  between  the  Gila  and  Colorado  of 
the  West,  will  yet  unite  California  and  Northern  Texas — the 
Pacific  and  the  Gulf — in  close  embrace.  If  Nebrasca  is  also 
endowed  with  like  Mineral  gifts,  as  there  are  indications,  they 
are  linked  to  Missouri,  Iowa,  Wisconsin  and  the  Lakes  in  a 
continuous  line,  which  again  descends  the  Lakes  and  radiates 
to  the  Atlantic  through  the  Coal  and  Iron  States. 

This  line  discloses  almost  every  mineral  known  to  Com- 
merce and  the  Arts,  and  as  the  Mining  interest  will  help  to 
employ  and  make  more  productive  all  our  other  National  in- 
terests, they  are  all  interested  in  clearing  the  path  and  pro- 
tecting the  operations  of  the  profitable  buyer  and  seller. 


NA  VI G.  1  T/X( ;  THE  8  R  .1  VO.  tf>j 

VQ  THE  BRA) 

Some  wiseacres  of  our  d  Lfl  positively  certain  tint  the 

'      Grande  is  not  navigable,  as  their  learned  prototypes  of 

tmanca  were  in  their  day,  that  there  was  no  land  for 
'  ambus  to  find  on  the  unknown  side  of  the  Atlantic. 
When  it  is  navi  '.  as  it  can  and  must  be,  many  hundred 
miles  above  their  "  atmost  limits  of  possible  navigation,"  tbey 
will  be  as  much  puzzled  to  understand  the  feat  as  the  \  n-se- 
cutors  of  Galileo  were  to  comprehend  the  "  impossible  "  pos- 
sibility of  the  earth  moving  round  the  sun.  These  positive 
gentlemen  have  not  yet  even  learned  the  name  of  the  river 
on  whose  capabilities  they  pronounce,  for  the  most  part,  on 
hearsay.  They  use  the  old  Spanish  term  of  description  of 
'•  Rio  Grande  del  Norte," — the  Great  River  of  the  North, — or 
simply  the  B  be  Great  River,  applied  to  it  by  the 

inhabitants  on  or  near  it,  to  distinguish  it  from  the  smaller 

ams — its  tributaries.  In  the  earlier  reports  on  this  river, 
some  of  these  scholarly  writers  talked  of  the  River  "  Rio" 

aide  and  the  River  Rio  del  Norte,  taking  in  their  untaught 
innocence  the  Spanish  for  river,  "rio"  as  a  part  of  its  proper 
name.  Bravo  is  the  proper  name  of  this  stream,  and  the 
English  prefix  of  "river"  would  be  more  suitable  than  the 
Spanish  word  "  rio,"  in  a  national  document  of  record  in  our 
own  tongue. 

Jt   is  rather  much  to  say  that  the  river  is  not  navigable, 
when,  of  the  only  tl.  ts  to  test  this,  every  one  i 

successful.     These  tl.         (Forte  were  made  in  common  bouts, 
at  diverse  s<  .  without  any  preliminary  knowledge  of  the 

current  or  its  various  difficulties,  and   without   the  force  or 
to  remove  the  slightest  impediments  in  the  bed  of  the 
river.     The  first  boat,  the  Harry  Love,  came  up  to  Eagle  Pass 


1*78  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

and  Fort  Duncan,  and  reported  the  Rapids  of  The  Isleta 
(or  Kingsbury's  Falls)  as  the  only  important  obstruction. 
The  boat's  crew,  however,  took  her  through  these  rapids, 
and  where  that  can  be  done,  a  strong,  suitably  constructed, 
iron  steamer  could  force  its  way  when  a  channel  is  cleared. 
To  place  on  unanswerable  ground  the  facility  of  conquering 
this  u  impassable  barrier  to  navigation,"  the  official  report  of 
a  competent  engineer,  which  has  been  on  record  in  the  War 
Department  already  nearly  two  years  without  action,  states 
unequivocally  that  a  channel  can  be  made  for  a  small  steamer 
for  fifty  thousand  dollars.  Contractors  could  probably  be 
found  who  would  <rive  bonds  to  the  United  States  to  execute 
the  work  for  one  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and  if  so,  it  would 
open  to  steam  navigation  one  thousand  miles  of  this  boundary 
river.  The  boats  would  be  small,  but  they  could  carry  each 
a  gun  or  two,  and  transport  troops  with  activity  from  point 
to  point,  to  meet,  drive  back,  and  effectually  overawe,  the 
wandering  tribes  of  savages  who  now  baffle  and  set  at  deri- 
sion our  slow,  and  always  after-time,  pursuits. 

The  second  boat  was  the  "  Maj.  Babbett,"  a  keel  boat  fifty 
feet  long,  sixteen  wide,  and  drawing  eighteen  inches  water. 
In  this  Capt.  Love  ascended  the  river  one  thousand  miles, 
and  to  within  two  hundred  of  El  Paso,  finding  as  before  the 
principal,  if  not  the  only  important  obstruction,  at  the  rapids 
at  Kingsbury's  Falls,  through  which  the  boat  was  warped  by 
her  crew.  The  last  exploration  was  made  by  Lieutenants 
Smith  and  Mechler,  who  went  up  from  the  mouth  of  the  river 
to  about  one  hundred  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Pecos, 
and  this  at  the  very  lowest  stage  of  water.  Their  report 
I  have  not  seen,  but  their  trip  confirms  the  feasibility  of  the 
Bravo  to  light  draught  steamers,  since  they  actually  navi- 
gated it  at  the  worst  season  up  to  the  very  gates  of  the  sil- 


THE  TR  UE  SO  UTIIERX  8  YSTEM.  1^9 

ver  region,  nnd  through  the  range  of  Indian  infested  country, 
in  which  even  the  smallest  steamers  would  be  the  most  efii- 

tit  of  all  defences. 

Before  the  government  or  any  of  its  servants  ventures  to 
abandon  the  protection  of  the  frontier,  let  one  hundred  thou- 
sand dollar.-  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  Secretary  of 
War  (provided  lie  is  not  infected  with  Galphinism),  for  the 
purpose  of  opening  the  channel  of  the  river,  and,  if  it  can  he 
done,  we  have  trebled  the  hopes  and  security,  and  cle 
away  the  worst  impediments,  of  the  frontier  settlements. 
How  any  practical  man  dare,  or  can,  set  his  private  inter* 
and  opinions  against  such  a  national  necessity  as  the  naviga- 
tion of  the  Bravo  to  its  utmost  capacity,  would  be  a  marvel, 
if  we  had  not  so  many  official  shortcomings  to  take  the  edge 
off  our  astonishment. 


THE  TRUE  SOUTHERN  SYSTEM. 

Let  the  South  look  to  her  interest  and  her  laurels,  for  there 
is  that  ripening  on  this  border  which  concerns  them  nearly. 
A  new  republic  is  rising  on  this  side  of  the  Sierra  Madre,  and 
she  will  bring  no  mean  baptismal  offering  to  the  altar  of  fr 
dom.  I  do  not  speak  of  that  phantom  giant,  "Slavery  Ex- 
tension," which  troubles  so  keenly  all  the  unbalanced  wits  in 
that  extensive  and  interesting  region  designated  in  our  politi- 
cal charts,  as  the  State  of  Buncombe.  "Wherever  our  bird  of 
power  fi\Q*,  wherever  our  stars  shine,  there  is  increase  of  light 
and  liberty.  The  States  of  Northern  Mexico  will  do  much 
for  human  amelioration,  in  the  change  in  the  peon  Byst< 
inevitable  to  a  state  of  closer  relationship  with  us;  but  the 
return  she  will  make  is  apart  from  all  slave  questions. 
Through  this  region,  west  of  the  Bravo,  now  in  the  act  of 
secession,  lies  one  of  the  great  continental  highways  that  should 


180  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

span  the  Union.  It  is  second  only  to  the  supremely  impor- 
tant route  of  Tehuantepec,  and  of  both  the  South  would  hold 
the  outward  gate,  the  genial  and  honored  warder  of  the  gen- 
eral interests  of  this  arm  of  our  entire  commercial  greatness. 
From  about  the  outlet  of  the  Red  River,  on  to  the  Father  of 
Waters,  draw  a  line  to  the  head  of  navigation  of  the  Bravo, 
and  thence  continue  this  line  to  the  confluence  of  the  Gila 
and  the  Colorado  of  the  West,  and  you  have  the  shortest, 
most  feasible,  and,  both  practically  and  commercially,  the 
most  desirable  .land  route  to  California.  With  all  the  mate- 
rials, if  it  were  necessary  to  construct  them  there,  even  to 
the  copper  for  the  boilers,  and  the  iron  for  the  rails,  as  well 
as  the  coal  to  work  them  on  the  line,  this  is  the  most  inviting 
path  for  the  national  railway  to  the  Pacific  States.  It  will 
pay  dividends, — and,  after  all,  the  certainty  of  this  is  the 
soundest  and  discreetest  guarantee  for  enterprise, — sooner 
than  any  other  of  the  much  discussed  routes.  It  cuts  through 
the  rich  heart  of  a  paying  country. 

The  line  from  the  mouth,  or  thereabouts,  of  the  Red  River 
to  the  Bravo  will  intersect,  in  succession,  very  nearly  the 
head  of  navigation  of  the  Trinity,  Brazos  and  Colorado — not 
to  speak  of  some  valuable  minor  streams — and  crosses  the 
whole  breadth  of  Texas  just  where  the  general-lay  of  the 
country  is  most  favorable  to  such  constructions,  and  where 
the  amount,  wealth,  and  enterprise  of  the  population,  would 
come  forward  most  powerfully  in  its  aid.  Each  of  the  prin- 
cipal rivers  of  Texas  would  be  an  auxiliary  duct  of  trade,  and 
all  they  drew  away  from  the  main  trunk,  to  their  respective 
gulf  ports,  would  be  made  up  by  the  more  impetuous  circu- 
lation of  the  whole  round  of  business.  The  State  of  Texas 
might  invest  a  permanent  fund  for  the  support  of  her  domes- 
tic Government,  in  this  section  of  a  highway,  that  must  make 
her  the  thoroughfare  of  this  immense  national  communication 


THE  TR  |  - 1 

for,  besides  at  once  enl.  he  value  of  Texas  property 

.he  full   amount  of  her  ou'..  *ild  b: 

annual  per  c  ix-pa- 

sea  >   bring  up   he;  -  ;bine,  for 

same  reasons ;  it  would  pay  dividends  to  her  cap:  in- 

crease vastly  her  taxal!  iraw  to  her  empo- 

rium a  dii  on  from  Europe.    En  ect 

trade  are  two  i     \         levers  of  prosperity.     This  direct  trade 
■nd  from  Europe   is  one  of  those  needs  of  the 

E    ith,  to  which  s!  en  hitherto  over  c  i,  and  i 

■  all  the  more  seriously  her  ;o  open  and  defend  those 

it  avenues  that  lie  within   her  guard.  of  these 

teries  of  national  life  nov  .  and  the  m- 

of  the  three  enfolds  v.         ..ith  to  make  even  a  poc 
powerful 

,  from  the  head  oi  ion,  through 

a,  to  California  and  Or-  -hould  find  .  mart  at 

r  Orleans,  and  its  carlv  and  thorcv  -hould  be 

* 

a  an,  regardless  of  sectional 
prejud 

Ti.  j  River  and  Texas  route   belts  a  more  southern, 

populous  and  accessible  region,  and  would  interlace  with  the 
Arkansas  route,  by  means  of  the  higher  i  of  the   \ 

River. 

T:  huantepec,  or  sea  route,  need  not  now  be  dwelt 

upon,  but  it  cl  nt  bearings  with  the 

other  two,  and,  well  be  termed 

the  Great  Soltheh-    S  or  Union*. 

To  pursue  this  with  efficiency,  brings  us  back 
though  attainable  link.     From  J  Red  R 

to  the   Bravo,  is  an  open,  known,  practi- . 
section  of  this  circle  of  national  highway;  but  between  the 
Bravo  and  the  ^  nia  lir.  confu-  ice  of 


182  LIFE  OX  THE  BORDER. 

foreign  obstructions.  Precisely  here  begins,  then,  one  of  the 
high  duties  which  the  South  owes  to  herself  and  the  Union. 
The  right  of  way  should  be  pressed,  insisted  upon,  and  ob- 
tained. Ask  it  noiVj  of  this  Government,  that  professes  to 
rule  Mexico,  and  take  no  rest  or  pause  until  this  path  is  safely 
our  own.  Our  cabinet  should  not  permit — it  should  not  be 
permitted  a  nay — either  for  Tehuantepec,  or  the  Northern 
land  line.  They  are  national  necessities,  and  at  any  price, 
they  must  be  made  secure,  and  if  the  President  is  true  to 
his  duty,  they  will  be  made  secure. 

In  this  northern  route,  in  ample  and  generous  concessions 
of  way,  lies  the  first  love-offering  of  the  seceding  Mexican 
States.  That  which  we  should  make  haste  to  demand  of 
Mexico,  the  embryo  northern  Republic  will  soon  make  haste 
to  proffer,  as  the  seal  of  a  sincere  amity — together  with  such 
other  advantages  of  intercourse  as  will  gladden  Northern  man- 
ufacturers, and  make,  as  it  should,  all  the  Union  partners  in 
the  gain. 

This  triple  band  of  national  highways  lies  the  second  time 
in  the  grasp  of  the  South.  Will  she  arise  in  her  wisdom,  and 
make  the  whole  family  of  her  Northern  sisters  her  contented 
debtors,  by  adopting,  cherishing,  and  maturing,  in  generous 
rivalry,  a  Southern  system — a  system  which,  without  arro- 
gance or  selfishness,  may  be  nobly  national  ? 

Let  Louisiana  lead  heartily  in  this,  as  becomes  the  elder 
and  more  experienced  sister,  and  be  certain  that  astute,  keen- 
eyed  Texas  and  golden  California,  will  answer  with  ready 
voice.  Let  every  Senator,  whose  heart's  truth  keeps  time 
with  his  tongue's  loud  profession  of  devotion  to  the  Union — 
and  the  whole  Union — give  his  hand  to  this  work,  at  Wash- 
ington, and  in  another  year  Europe  will  bow  her  weary  head 
and  retire  from  the  contest.  With  twenty  States  on  her  old 
Atlantic  realm,  it  was  more  than  difficult ;  but  with  another 


9ALPHINI8M.  183 

too,  b  siting,  in  mighty  array,  their  own  Bteam-defended  in- 
land sea,  and  stretching  to  the  Pacific,  in  one  continuous  and 
invincible  line*,  she  could  but  retire,  and  leave  the  matchless 
Union  victor  of  undisputed  sway — mistress  of  this  continent — 
guardian  of  the  Atlantic — arbitress  of  the  Pacific — prol 
tress  of  the  Gulf  and  its  cluster  of  inland  gems!  The  t 
of  all  this  is  the  vigorous  circulation  of  the  blood  of  the 
Union,  from  ocean  to  ocean, — and  this  is  now  the  pressing  and 
particular — though  I  fear  much  neglected — care  and  the  duty 
of  Southern  statesmen. 


QALPHINISM. 

Speaking  of  the  corruption  of  Mexican  officials,  it  may  be 
well  enough  to  give  here  a  slight  idea  of  an  affair,  in  which 
high  members  of  our  own  Cabinet  are  by  no  means  exempt  from 

suspicions  of  partnership.  For  myself,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say 
that  enough  has  fallen  under  my  own  observation,  to  leave 
an  indelible  conviction  that  there  are  high  accomplices  at 
Washington,  in  a  fraudulent,  but  plausible  scheme,  to  plun- 
der the  United  States  Treasury  of  several  millions  of  dollars. 
It  will  be  led  off  by  one  of  the  ablest  and  largest  of  the  land- 
holders of  Northern  Mexico,  who  expects  the  lion's  share  of 
the  prey.  Senor  Sanchez  owns  tract  after  tract,  and  all  the 
laborers  thereon,  in  such  long  succession,  that  one  may  travel 
three  hundred  miles  on  the  route  from  San  Juan  de  Sabinas 
to  Saltillo,  and  in  all  that  way  find  no  commodity  for  man  or 
I  it  except  on  his  ranches.  In  that  long  line  of  untaxed 
land  monopoly  and  unrelenting  peonage,  there  is  no  family 
that  does  not  live  in  daily  terror  of  Indians  and  no 
brutal  Mexican  robbers,  and  scarcely  one  family — no,  not 
one — that  enjoys  the  comforts  of  bed,  board,  and  shelter, 
as  amply   as   they  are  habitually  provided  for  the  inmates 


184  LIFE  ON  THE  B  ORDER. 

of  the  Kew  York  alras-liouses.  Where  the  impoverished 
and  trembling  inhabitants  are  not  gathered  in  their  com- 
fortless  Pueblos,  there  is  nothing  but  desert  fields,  and  here 
and  there  a  few  half-starved  peons  to  look  after  the  enormous, 
uncounted  herds  of  wild  cattle  that  swarm  on  these  wastes. 
Over  this  immense  wilderness  Don  Jacobo  Sanchez  is  the 
supreme  lord.  He  is  church  and  state,  and  his  decrees,  issued 
from  his  luxurious  abode  in  Mexico,  come  undisputed  and  un- 
disputable  as  fate.  Only  in  this  is  he  paying  the  penalty  with 
the  rest  of  his  class,  in  leaving  this  fair  region  a  wilderness 
for  the  abode  of  cattle  and  peons,  instead  of  making  it  the 
home  of  men  ;  the  soil  has  no  defenders,  and  the  Indians  are 
more  the  masters  of  these  vast  estates  than  Don  Jacobo  him- 
self. The  tithes  which  he  will  not  give  to  humanity  and 
civilization,  for  the  creation  of  a  free  and  soil-defending  popu- 
lation of  homestead  owners,  the  savages  have  taken  from  him 
sevenfold.  How  many  ages  will  it  take  us  to  learn  that  no- 
thing is  so  unprofitable  as  avarice — nothing  so  uncomfortable 
as  selfishness  ?  Of  course,  Don  Jacobo's  servants  cannot 
know  with  certainty  how  many  horses,  cows  and  sheep  are 
destroyed  in  these  forays  during  the  year  ;  but  their  lord  is 
an  acute  reckoner,  and  he  takes  care  not  to  let  his  accounts 
suffer  by  under  estimates,  as  he  expects  to  be  paid  all  his 
losses  at  his  own  enumeration  and  at  his  own  prices,  by  our 
credulous  people.  He  has  also  had  several  peons  killed  by 
the  Indians,  and  many  more  have  fled  from  their  ration  of  a 
peck  of  corn  a  week,  and  whipping  at  discretion,  to  our  side 
of  the  Bravo.  These  will  likely  figure  on  the  list  as  "  mules,* 
or  beasts  of  burden,"  and  that  without  making  any  ungener- 
ous subtractions  from  their  money  value.  Even  these  peons, 
and  other  live  stock  which  he  has  sold  from  time  to  time  oft 
his  property,  will  not  fail  to  appear,  so  runs  the  voice,  in  his 
catalogue  of  the  lost ;  and  not  a  hoof  or  horn  of  them  will 


QALPHIN1SM.  185 

lack  full  ami  complete  authentication,  under  the  ^ign-manual 
of  his  true  and  faithful  servants.  Oaths  are  aol  much  dearer 
in  Mexico  than  in  certain  courts  of  the  Empire  City. 

By  the  treaty  with  Mexico,  the  United  States  were  bound 
to  protect  the  frontier,  but  if  that  is  Btretched  to  defend  all 
the  interior  towns  of  Mexico,  which  their  own  government 
abandons  to  Indian  ravages,  we  must  double  our  Btanding 
army,  and  increase  our  milil  ipenditures  live  or  six  mil- 

lions a  year.  It  would  be  cheaper  to  take  or  to  buy  the 
country  at  once. 

If  speculators  are  to  cipher  up  such  claims,  and  Galphin- 
ize  them  out  of  the  treasury,  a  round  ten  millions  will  not  end 

Be  "indemnities  for  Indian  depredations." 

Benor  Sanchez,  enligbl  by  certain   late  proceedings, 

will  give  a  pair  of  influential  senators  an  interest  in  his  claim ; 
and,  1  think,  with  the  aid  of  a  clairvoyant  or  a  Bpiritual  medium, 
we  could  indicate  the  precise  gentlemen.  This  by  way  of 
inning;  next  he  must  give  a  counsel  fee  of  five  or  ten 
thousand  dollars  to  an  experienced  lawyer  who  has  enlai 
and  purified  his  legal  wisdom  by  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  and 
then  the  end  will  be  in  sight.  We  are  a  little  curious  to 
know  who  in  the  Cabinet  has  been,  or  will  be,  the  recipient 
of  the  great  Sanchez  fee  ;  or  whether  it  will  be  tendered  in- 
stead to  a  son,  brother,  or  partner  of  a  Cabinet  member.  It 
will  require  brilliant  legal  talent,  and  most  able  management, 
to  get  up  a  plausible  showing  for  such  an  interpretation  of 
the  treaty,  (fur  most  assuredly  a  fair  construction  will  n< 
justify  these  claims,)  and  Senor  Sanchez  can  well  afford 
pay  a  tenth— say  a  hundred  thousand  dollars— to  the  genius 
who  is  able  to  convince  the  Cabinet  of  the  justne-s,  and  Con- 
gress of  the  expediency,  of  such  a  payment. 

Mr.  Fillmore  has  been  urged  In  a— doubtless  disinterest- 
ed— member  of  his  Cabinet,  to  propose  giving  sii  millions  of 


186  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 


dollars  for  a  discharge  from  this  class  of  claims.  No  man 
would  have  dared  propose  such  an  unjust  levy  on  the  public 
funds  to  one  of  our  earlier  Presidents,  and  Mr.  Fillmore  re- 
jected the  idea  as  they  would  have  done,  but  one  who  ought 
to  know,  says,  that  he  will  be  "argued  into  opening  the  ques- 
tion with  Mexico,  and  when  the  wedge  is  entered,  the  work 
will  soon  be  done."  Yet  to  our  border  citizens,  not  one 
mounted  regiment  can  be  afforded  for  a  thousand  miles  of 
river  frontier.  We  do  not  ask  indemnity  for  our  slaughtered 
herds,  but  those  whose  fault  it  is  shall  not  escape  their  pro- 
per share  of  the  responsibility. 

THE  CRISIS. 

Yet,  if  we  are  approximating  to  the  "  Reign  of  Spoils," 
under  which  Mexico  lies  prostrate  and  bleeding,  Northern 
Mexico  is  slowly,  but  certainly  taking  the  inoculation  of  prac- 
tical self-government  from  us  ;  and,  as  it  gains  upon  her,  the 
worst  features  of  her  social  system  will  be  reformed  with 
their  constitution.  The  first  great  convulsion  at  the  capital 
will  rend  asunder  the  ill-adjusted  confederacy,  and  erect  the 
northern  states  of  Mexico  into  an  independent  republic. 

The  whole  country  this  side  of  the  Sierra  Madre  is  inexorable 

M 

in  its  contempt  and  detestation  of  the  Central  Government.  A 
few  of  the  richest  and  most  corrupt  of  the  priesthood,  a  few 
more  of  the  great  landholders,  maintain  from  interested  mo- 
tives their  attachment  to  the  soldier-despotism  of  Mexico  ; 
the  priests  because  their  exorbitant  fees  are  secured  to 
them  by  the  laws,  natural  to  this  unholy  union  of  Church 
and  State,  and  because  they  are  upheld  in  their  luxurious 
and  riotous  debaucheries  by  their  equally  corrupt  military 
compeers ;  the  landholders  because  it  is  the  stay  of  theii 
grinding  peon   system,  the  most  debasing  servitude  on  this 


THE  CRISIS.  187 

continent,  and  more  cruelly  enforced  on  the  four  or  five  mil- 
lions of  Indians  than  our  hereditary  Bjrstem  of  bondage  can 
be  made  to  bear  on  the  Africanfl  ;  the  enormous  untaxed  land* 
monopoly,  which  enables  the  owner  of  two  or  three  hundred 

square  miles  to  dictate  the  terms  on  which  the  homeless, 
starving  poor  man  may  toil  out  his  life,  and  which  reduces 
the  laborer  to  sell  out  his  blood  and  sinews,  his  mortal  life 
and  his  immortal  hopes,  for  the  meanest  shelter  and  the  scan- 
tiest pittance  which  will  hold  their  existence  together.  Noble 
Brotherhood  of  the  Union  !  well  did  a  gifted  member  of  your 
glorious  order  say  of  corrupt  governments:  "  As  Freedom, 
Home,  and  Instruction  make  the  sublime  trinity  of  political 
good,  so  is  Servitude,  Destitution  and  Ignorance  the  evil  tri- 
nity of  political  debasement" 

Each  order  of  the  Mexican  state,  as  it  now  exists,  is  eager 
to  sustain  the  dominion  of  the  evil  trinity.  They  are  the 
pillars  of  this  temple  of  wrong,  now  tottering  to  its  founda- 
tion. The  military  power  quells  liberty  and  helps  the  profli- 
gate priest  to  stifle  expansion,  while  the  merciless  and  all-pow- 
erful landlord  starves  and  beats  the  very  desire  for  better 
things  out  of  his  dispirited  serf.  We  need  not  go  to  Asia 
to  find  suffering  heathen  ;  we  have  five  millions  at  our  very 
door,  and  what  is  written  in  black  letters  against  us — loud- 
voiced,  self-praisers  that  we  are — is  that  we  have  just  taken 
eighteen  millions  from  the  industry  of  our  own  honest  toilers 
to  supply  their  tyrants  with  more  scourges  and  stronger 
chains.  We  knew  when  we  were  paying  all  these  millions 
to  the  Mexican  generals  that  every  dollar  would  be  expend- 
ed to  the  hurt  of  the  oppressed  workingmen  of  M.-xico, 
yet  we  had  the  audacity  to  demand  that  all  the  world  should 
sing  paeans  to  our  magnanimity.  In  this  our  hypocrisy  was 
yet  more  superlative  than  our  absurdity. 

But  the  time  has  come  at  last  in  -vhich  the  evil  is  becom- 


188  LIFE  ON  THE  BORDER. 

ing  its  own  cautery.     The  rich  are  alarmed  at  the  anarchy 
and  insecurity  of  property  ;    the  better  class  of   priests  are 
startled  at  the  frightful  indifference  of  the  masses  to  the  rites 
of  the  church,  caused  by  their  being  sold  at  prices  above  the 
common  reach  ;    the  soldiers  find    themselves  hated  and  ill- 
paid,  and  there   is   no  remedy  but  in  a  war  where  they  will 
become  necessary  ;  the  suffering  people  want  something  dif- 
ferent from  their  present  oppressions,  and  all  demand,  change. 
With  all  this  there  needs  but  a  leader;  a.  man  of  name  and 
ability  who  will  put  himself   in  the  field,  and  promise  them 
security,  trade,  and  no  soldiers.     They  are   narrow  and   in- 
complete in  their  wishes,  but  so  far  as  they  can  see  there  is 
a  unanimous  will  for  revolution.     A  rumor,  a  faith,  an  ex- 
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and  their  old  enemies,  pervades  the  air.     No  one  can  tell 
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come  across  the  mountains  in  deadly  feud  with  the  plunder- 
ing faction  that  has  its  nest  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  and  take 
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were  the  appointed  signal  for  decisive  measures.     When  you 
hear  of  a  revolution  in  Mexico,  you  may  prepare  to  celebrate 
the  birth  of  another  nation. 


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